I'm not Holding your Hand!
by JustValiant
Summary: Set during Prince Caspian. Edmund refused to hold Peter's hand in the train station and soon realises his mistake when he finds himself alone in a different and very savage Narnia. Check out the trailer to this the link's on my profile or in chapter 1&2
1. Chapter 1

Set during Prince Caspian. Edmund refused to hold Peter's hand and soon realises his mistake when he find himself alone in a very savage Narnia.

I've had this idea for ages, so I decided that it was actually time to type it up and post it here, so I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to know what age the Pevensie's are in this fic it's written below.

Peter - 17

Susan - 16

Edmund - 14

Lucy - 12

By the way the link to the trailer for this fanfiction is here: .com/watch?v=hHz5UHobd0I

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><p>"Your welcome." Edmund said to his brother as he sat down next to the blonde on the bench.<p>

"I had it sorted." Peter said standing from his seat almost as if deliberatly trying to escape from his younger brother's presence.

"What was it this time?" Susan asked.

"He bumped me."

"So you hit him?" Lucy sounded confused.

"No after he bumped me, they tried to make me appologise, that's when I hit him."

"Really is it that hard just walk away?" Susan asked.

"I shouldn't have to! Don't you ever get tried of being treated like a kid?" Peter asked.

"Um, we are kids!" Edmund replied.

"But I wasn't always!" At one point in the four childrens lives they were all adults, however no body else here knew that, the only person who had been told of their adventure in Narnia was the professcer, who had been so kind as to take them in for a while. The station atmosphere was extremly tense and no one really knew what to say that wouldn't cause an argument, after all Peter was still in a fuss that Edmund had helped him in that fight a moment ago, when the blonde _'had it sorted.'_

"It's been a year, how long does he expect us to wait?" Peter asked his siblings as he sat back down on the bench.

"I think it's time to accept that we live here, it's no use pretending any different." Susan replied crossing her arms over her chest in a mimic of what their mother used to do when she was annoyed with them over something.

"Pretend your talking to me." Susan said quickly.

"But we are talking to you."

"Ow!" Lucy exclaimed suddenly as she rose from her seat on the bench, her siblings turning their heads to look at her in confusion.

"Quiet Lu." Susan mumbled to Lucy as the younger girl looked around at them.

"Something pinched me!" She said pointing to the wall that had previously been behind her when she was sat down.

"Hey, stop pulling!" Peter shouted at Edmund as he too stood up frm the bench, Edmund just sent him a confused glare.

"I'm not touching you." He replied, Susan just watched in confusion, just like Edmund.

"Will all of you just-" Susan stopped mid-sentence as she stood up feeling something pulling at her as well, Edmund rose from the bench too, most probably for the same reason, "What is that?" She asked her siblings as they all stood together in a line as the train began to speed past them.

"It feels like magic." Lucy said happily as she looked down the line at her three older siblings.

"Quick everyone hold hands!" Susan told her siblings realising what Lucy was getting at.

Lucy grabbed her sisters hand, gripping it for dear life. Susan and Peter held hands, feeling slightly embaressed at the factor, but it did remind them both of when they were younger and neither had a single complaint. The three of them held each other's hands tightly and it was when Peter went to take Edmund's hand that the problems started.

"I'm not holding your hand!" Edmund shouted out as he and Peter locked eyes, pieces of paper and rubbish flying around them and the train zooming by infront of them. The younger brother was still annoyed at his older brother from earlier.

"Just-" Peter started as he tried to grab his brother's hand again, this time succeeding in grabbing something, so didn't think any more of it. Peter, if he had bothered to look down, would have noticed that he was only holding on to his brother's thin fingers.

No one else in the area noticed as the train station began to come apart piece by piece. The cieling was falling apart, the lights smashed above their heads, putting the station in a state of near darkness. Posters were being torn apart from where they were placed around the platform and the wind began to increase in strength. The wall behind the four of them that was made of carfully placed bricks to spell out the word Strand began to disappear and be replaced by different scenery entirely as the train rushed past them, every one else disappearing.

Peter, who thought that he had a tight enough grip on his younger brothers hand, had thought wrong, as the raven haired boy slipped his hand away from his brother's grip that had only just been holding on to the end of his fingers.

All four of them smiled as the station disappered and oppoiste them they could see what looked to be a rock and as they all allowed their eyes to follow the train to see where it went they could all see the most beautiful sunlit day with a lovely beach and blue sea resting underneath it. Lucy, Peter and Susan kept their eyes locked on the wonderful sea view in front of their eyes and they honestly just couldn't believe it.

Edmund, who still remembered the last time he had been to Narnia extremly clearly, allowed a smile to plaster itself on to his face as it was finally time for them all to return and this time he would be with his family for the whole journey there and back. Or so he had hoped.

The smile began disappearing off of his face as the scenery infront of him began to change drastically. The beautiful sea view became a boring green and when Edmund looked down he could see leaves beneath his feet.

Suddenly Edmund reached out for his brothers hand, but found that he couldn't grab a hold of it. He averted the gaze of his eyes, so that he was looking at his brothers hand and yet he still couldn't grab a hold of it. Edmund took a deep breath, closed his eyes and tried again putting all of his faih in to it, yet the result was exactly the same as it had been previously and Edmund was beginning to panic. As he looked at his brother's hand he saw that his siblings were disappearing from his view.

The didn't seem to notice that he was disappearing and Edmund realised why. Peter had held on to his fingers, so hadn't noticed when Edmund had let go of his hand.

Edmund looked around to see a dense wood and he was right in the middle of it. The small clearing was surrounded by trees, grass and leaves that littered the floor. The leaves below Edmund's feet were a mixture of colours, but mainly green and brown, although some held hints of orange on them. They made a crunching sound as Edmund moved his foot forward a step before stopping.

The clearing was surrounded by trees! And he was in Narnia, the trees in Narnia could talk and Edmund could use that to find out where he was, what was going on and how to get back to his brother and sisters, because being alone again is not how he wanted to spend his time in Narnia.

"Hello!" He shouted to the trees, "I'm King Edmund the Just and I need your help!" No answer. "Hello!" Edmund shouted getting more and more desperate by the second as he was given no answer once again. Why weren't the trees answering him like they always had done in the past when he had lived in Nanria for all of those years. "Hello! Please answer me!" He called one last time and still he recieved no answer.

Edmund sunk to his knees, tears starting to form in his eyes as he felt the all to familier feeling of despair start to run through him as it registered in his mind that he was alone, in Narnia, with no clue as to the where abouts of his brother and sister all that he knew is that they were probably having fun at that lovely looking beach.

As Edmund sat on the floor of the wood, the silence scaring him more and more by the second he suddenly had a horrible realisation. Susan was right! Well, that wasn't the horrible part of it, he didn't mind Susan being right, but he did mind that he didn't listen all because he couldn't let go of his and Peter's short and pointless arugment.

Edmund had let go of his brothers hand and in doing so he had brought him self to here (wherever here actually was,) away from them thanks to his on stupidity, his own pride.

This was his fault.

Edmund let his tears fall as he remained alone in the dark forest space.

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><p>I know it's a bit short, but I should be able to upload the next chapter soon so that should make up for it. I hope you like it, please review and thanks for reading :)<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews and the alerts, they really inspire me to keep writting my stories. So here's chapter two for you :)

By the way if the beginning of this chapter confuses you slightly please keep reading as it will all be revealed later on in this chapter.

Also here's the link to the trailer for this fanfiction, but I'll post it again at the end of this chapter, it's also in chaper 1 and it's also on my profile .com/watch?v=hHz5UHobd0I&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

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><p>The three siblings carefully stepped out of the dark cave in silence, because of this not noticing there missing brother. They all stopped looking over at the wide sea. Lucy looked to Susan and the pair smiled before running towards the waves.<p>

Peter looked over his shoulder to do the same to his brother, smiling before giving Edmund a light push back (not noticing how he never made contact with his brothers clothing) before he started to follow his sisters with his brother, from what he could guess, was doing the same thing.

"Shame your not as quick as me, Ed!" Peter shouted back to his brother who was at the back of the group.

"Last one in's a rotten egg!" Lucy shouted back as the three ran along the beach. Peter, knowing that his brother was not as fast as the rest of them, still thought that his brother was with them. Just like his sisters did and he imagine his raven haired younger brother running with when he looked back, increasing the smile on his face as he realised that they were all together and they were all happy.

They were all in Narnia.

"Watch out!" Peter called as he ran past his sisters who had stopped momentarily to remove their shoes, Edmund still at the back of the group pulling his jacket and scarf off, "Here it comes!"

All four of them ran in to the water, with out a single care in the world for anything else as they felt the cool water wash over their feet and everything that had been said in the train station was pushed to the back off their minds as they all enjoyed the moment of fun that they had in front of them.

Peter ducked down and placed a hand to the water splashing it over his sister, before Lucy shouted out,

"Wait a minute!" As she ran out of the water for a second to pull her jacket off and place it on the beach. In her absence Edmund kicked the water up over Peter.

"Come on, Susan. Hurry up!" Edmund shouted, the first thing that he had said since they had arrived in Nanria seemed to not reach his siblings ears as they never seemed to hear it. Although, Susan thought that she could hear something, but she quickly covered it up by speaking once again to her siblings.

"Come on it's lovely!" Susan shouted, unaffected by Edmund's words that she hadn't actually heard, as she watched Lucy fall in to the water, before her younger sister climbed to her feet again, all four of them enjoying splashing water over each other.

"Edmund." Lucy half spoke and half shouted her brothers name as she felt water hit her back, going down the back collar of her shirt, instantly presuming it to be her black haired brother, even though it actually was Peter.

"Ed? Ed!" Susan shouted out to her brother when she felt the amounts of water that had been been thrown over her, from who she two had presumed to be her younger brother seemed to stop.

Peter and Lucy seemed unaffected by Susan's shouts, Lucy letting out a squeal as Peter chucked another set of water over her. He placed his hand back into the water to try and do the same thing again as Lucy raised her hands to her head, but he stopped raising his hand out of the water, his eyes looking at where his older sister was looking.

Lucy too seized playing their little childish fun game and looked at Susan too, curiously.

"What is it?" Peter asked, his tone faltering slightly inbetween his words, but his sisters didn't seem to notice it, especially Susan, she seemed to be so focussed on something else entirely.

"Where's Edmund?" Susan asked desperatly.

Lucy looked even more confused, but referained from speaking.

"Well where do you think?" Peter asked back more sarcastically then anything although Susan didn't seemed botheredd by it, but only more worried than she was before. Over what though Peter and Lucy had no clue.

"Well I don't see him here." Susan replied and this time Peter and Lucy, with a glance at each other, managed to catch on to Susan's point. They both looked around and yet their brother was no where to be found, yet Peter had been so sure that he was with them before. He had held his brothers hand to get here, he knew it.

"Ed?" Lucy shouted in question, wondering if this was Edmund playing a joke on them all, thinking that it might turn out to be funny.

"Edmund!" Susan shouted, so desperatly and loudly that you would wonder why she hadn't managed to tear her voice from her throat.

"Ed." Peter mumbled as he too looked around the area, still no sign of his younger brother.

"Edmund!" Lucy screamed, startling Susan and Peter who turned to her believing that she had found him and you would have to if you had heard her scream, but not everything was as it seemed to be, "This joke isn't funny anymore, please just come out!"

"I don't think Edmund's playing hide and seek, Lu." Peter told her placing an arm around her shoulders, the younger looking up at her older brother sadly, but at that moment she couldn't help, but wish that she had two with her still.

"Where is he!" She shouted, so loud that Peter nearly had to cover his ears as he was so close, "We all held hands we all came hear to Narnia, so where is he!"

"I don't remember any ruins in Narnia though." Susan said, her brother and sister following her line of sight to the gaint land mass that had before looked liked a hill, but now that Susan mentioned it, they did almost look like ruins.

But of what the three couldn't tell.

Peter, Susan and Lucy all wondered why they had been able to see Edmund if he wasn't actually with them, but strangely they all knew why they had in the back of their minds.

It was all because that was what they had all wanted to see, so it had completely clouded their vision until Susan had broke out of imagining Edmund splashing water on her and it was only when she had looked over in his direction to tell Edmund off for getting the water all down the back of her shirt that she realised he wasn't there. She had told Peter and lucy and then they could see it to.

Edmund wasn't with them at all.

As they stood there in the waters the waves pushed against the back of their legs, as if trying to tell them to get out of the water and leave the only beach, to go and investigate, even though they knew that they had been brought up better. After all their mother had told them to never stray from a path if they didn't know where it would take them.

But strangely they all felt too far gone to head such a good warning.

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><p>The wood still remained silent and the trees held no movement, making the wood feel extremly lonely. The raven haired boy remained sat on the cold forest floor, tears slipping down his pale face as he sat alone.<p>

Edmund thought of the beach that he had seen for a moment when he first arrived in Narnia although that only saddened him more as he imagined all of the fun that he and his siblings could be having if he were with them.

Racing each other in to the water, spalshing in to each other faces, being able to be children, to have fun, like they couldn't in their world.

Yet, even this his siblings could do without him. They didn't need him to have fun on a beach. More tears fell down the young boy's face, his mind saddening and sinking in to dispair every second that he spent alone.

Although it made him sad, he continued to imagine him with his brother and sisters playing on the beach and in the water, despite the earlier arugment that he had had with Peter, he just wished that he could be there with them. It was that arugment that had caaused this to happen. If he and Peter hadn't of fallen out he would have held his brothers hand and he would be there with them.

Edmund let his mind drift and let it visualise the scene that he had thought over in his mind in front of his eyes.

Peter would push him back slightly before running after Susan and Lucy. Then he would shout out how Edmund was slower than him, and he would take the lead easily over his sisters, dashing in to the water and being the first to attack with the wild sea water

Edmund thought of how Susan would always hold back before she threw water over another of her siblings. How he would shout to her.

"Come on, Susan. Hurry up!" Edmund shouted and for a second he came out of his fun visioned beach scene and realised that he had actually just shouted that outloud. But he knew that Susan wouldn't hear him, no one would, he was in the middle of a gaint wood after all.

Little did Edmund know that his sibllings had realised that he wasn't with them, but Edmund felt to lost to do anything. The woods were lonely at the moment, yet they were part of his title.

Edmund thought back to the words of the great Aslan himself had said.

_'To the great western woods, King Edmund the Just.'_

The great western woods.

Strangely Edmund felt now as if the woods were more of his enemy than his friends, without the trees answering his calls , he just felt like a lost cause with nothing else to do, but sit on the ground and cry.

But Kings don't cry.

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><p>Peter, Susan and Lucy walked through the ruins, looking at the crumbling form of what was once stairs and archways, now overgrown by trees and bushes of all different kinds. Susan was more focused on the stone pillars most of which still stood tall, with small breaks and cracks in them, she seemed amazed at the work it had taken to build them. Lucy ate an apple that she had picked from one of the trees as she looked around, not really figuring out what it was that they were looking at.<p>

Peter had climbed up one of the sets of stairs to take a look from a higher peak, placing his hands to his hips as he did so. Lucy walked across the grass from a small concreate path, that was now grown over except for a small patch of it that had escaped the grasses clutches.

Lucy walked underneath another tree, now stood on the cold concreate that made some sort of floor, heading towards a demolished wall that was now continuing to break apart in small chunks of rock. She stopped to look over the edge of the wall, of which had a lovely view of the sea that they had just been in as well as other islands of land that surrounded the ruins.

Lucy, for and unknown reason, could still see Edmund running through the water, Peter chasing him, trying to catch him, while Susan stood at the side holding a set of towels, her horn on a strap that was over her shoulder. Lucy couldn't see herself anywhere in this scene, which worried her slightly, until she managed to spot herself sitting on the beach with a faun.

The brunette took a step closer to the edge of the wall and suddenly the figures all disappeared, leaving Lucy with no idea at all as to who the faun had been or as to what they had all been doing. However she did know that they were all together in it. Lucy, who had just seen a vision, failed to notice that the trees were not swaying with the wind like they should be.

"Wonder who lived here?" Lucy asked turning her head over her shoulder to look at her older brother and sister.

Susan walked out from round behind a tree to join Lucy, her foot lightly knocking in to something small that made a clinking sound as it rolled on to the concreate ground that was surrounded by the ground. Susan, carefully bent down to pick it up, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she stood back up looking at the small gold figure, of which she thought she could see Edmund with.

"I think we did." She said after a moment of not being able to shake the image of Edmund with the golden figure from her mind. Lucy looked at her older sister in a form of confusion before walking over to stand at Susan's side and get a closer look on the item that she was holding tightly in her hands.

Peter walked round to join his sisters next and looked curiously at the golden item that Susan had her eyes focused on.

"What is it?" Lucy asked reaching to take it from Susan, who just moved it closer towards her chest.

"I think it might be Edmund's, from a chess set or something." Susan replied, the image in her head becoming clearer to display Edmund winning a game of chess, against Mr Tumnus by moving this very figure.

"Which chess set?" Peter asked, not seeming to remeber his brother having a chess set until he too thought back to the past, when they had all ruled Narnia through it's golden age, "His golden one." Peter mumbled imagining what his brother would say if he was here at this moment. It would probably be something like;

"Well I didn't exactly having a solid gold chess set in Finchley, did I?"

Strangely all three of them could imagine Edmund taking the figure out of Susan's hands to look at it, but they all knew that that couldn't be possible. After all they had no clue as to where Edmund actually was at this very moment. Lucy looked past her sister, who was starring at Peter, of whom was returning her glance, to see some more ruins.

But these one's made more sense then the rest of them.

"Can't be." She said quietly, mainly to herself, although Peter and Susan had heard her voice break out over the silence, both following their sister at a light running pace.

Lucy had hold of Peter's hand when they arrived at what Lucy had been looking at before.

"Don't you see."

"What?" Peter asked, completely comfused, Susan just watched from where she was stood. Lucy dragged Peter to stand infront of some of the fallen rocks.

"Imagine walls." She told him before moving on to Susan and doing the same to her, placing her sister in front of some rocks as well.

"And columns, there." She said pointing in the direction that she had meant. She walked over to stand in front of another pile of rocks, before speaking again, "And a glass roof." The three looked out over the ruins from where they were stood, suddenly realising whereabouts in Nanria they were.

"Cair Paravel." Peter spoke loud enough for his sisters to hear and as if by instint he looked to his left, expecting to see Edmund there, smiling at him. But as he looked over his shoulder he remembered that they didn't know where Edmund was.

Peter then focused his attention back on to the ruins, Susan and Lucy, his sisters were both panicking over something by the looks of it.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked, Lucy of who was almost crying, almost.

"If this is Cair Paravel-" She started, but couldn't finish as she found that she had lost her voice.

"Then what's the rest of Narnia like?" Susan finished for her sister. Peter then realised what his sisters were getting at. If Cair Paravel, the place that was once their home, was now destoryed then was the rest of Narnia the same, was the rest of Narnia even safe to be alone in?

All three of them shared a look with each other before glancing over to Edmund's destoryed throne. Silently vowing that they would find their brother no matter what it took.

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><p>Edmund rose from the ground and wiped his eyes before beginning to walk away from the center of the wood, slightly worried about leaving the space that he had stayed in for the past while. Edmund had already decided to head straight forwards.<p>

As he took a step forward his foot knocked into a small golden playing piece. Edmund bent down to pick it up and quickly realised what it was.

"This is mine, from my chess set that was back at Cair Paravel." He mumbled to himself, before looking around the space of the woods to see if there was anyone else around him, even though he already knew that there wasn't.

He chucked the chess piece into his bag and began walking again, hoping that he might just manage to find his sisters and his brother, although he knew that he wouldn't be able to.

Yes he was in Narnia he knew that much, but he didn't know his way from this part of the woods and he knew that he would never be found in such a dense wood, so that left him only one choice.

And that was to try and find his brother and sisters, find his way to somewhere that he knew or find his way to somewhere that he knew Lucy, Susan and Peter would head to on his own.

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><p>Horses of all different colours, but mainly bay and black, galloped across the gaint and heavy concreate bridge that lead to the walls of a castle, a very big, well structured castle. From a balcony a young baby was held in the arms of a man, who was accompanied by a female who seemed to care for him and the child so much than she did for anything else, where as the man seemed to care greatly for the horses that were coming back in to the castle now, one of them with no rider being lead by another of the men and their horse.<p>

The man carefully placed the child into the females arms before leaving the balcony heading down towards the horse that had just returned after all he had to know why one horse had come back without it's rider, especially when he knew who that black horse belonged to.

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><p>Peter, Susan and Lucy continued to look around what they now knew to be the ruins of what was once their home,the castle of Cair Paravel. Peter walked over towards another set of ruins pulling a fallen tree branch out of the way, before pushing at the wall, wishing that his younger brother was here to help him, like he always had been when they had needed to move the wall in the past.<p>

Susan and Lucy, itrigued walked over to where Peter was moving the wall out of the way to reveal a small, old, wooden door, that the three didn't think would still be standing after they had seen the state of the rest of the castle. Both of them could easily see that their brother wished that he had Edmund here to help him.

The door wouldn't open by the handle that was imprinted with the symble of the great lion, oh how the three of them were praying to Aslan that they would find Edmund soon, so instead Peter had to cut a hole in the wood to be albe to push the locked door back open.

The blonde then made a small cut in the bottom of his shirt before continuing to rip it off from the rest of the white material. He then wrapped it around a stick of wood, Susan and Lucy looking at Peter as if he was sort of going crazy.

"Don't suppose you have any matches, do you?" Peter asked to no one in perticular.

"No, we don't." Susan replied.

"But Edmund has a torch, don't you Edmund!" Lucy said excitedly before realising once again that there was only three of them, not four.

Peter threw the stick and piece of shirt to the ground and headed down first in to the darkness, Susan and Lucy following him down, each one holding on to the hand of the other that was infront. Suddenly light poured in to their eyes as they stepped down the last step that was on the first set of stairs.

Peter and Susan went to continue on down the stairs, where as Lucy just walked to the edge and looked over the ground that was below her in complete awe, before quickly moving to follow her brother and sister.

Peter pushed open the old metal gates, looking up and around in the place in pure amazement "I can't believe it. It's all still here." Lucy ran past him and over to the chest that was at the far right, the one that she still knew to be hers. She raised the lid as Susan moved forward to do the same, both of the girls could imagine Edmund opening his chest as well.

Peter, while the girls were looking in their chests had picked up a shield tht was laying on the floor.

"I was so tall." Lucy said as she held up a gold colour dress against her body, of which was too long for her to wear.

"Well, you were older then." Susan replied as she watched her sister fiddle about with the dress. Lucy smiled and folded the dress back up to place it back into her chest. As she did she could almost hear Edmund saying something to her, something like;

"As opposed to hundreds of years later... When you're younger." And he would be wearing a helmet, the same one he wore when he had nearly been killed by the white witch. She could imagine both she and Susan smiling as she looked over to her sister who held her bow he her hand.

Peter blew as hard as he could over the shield, revealing it's gold colour and the face of the great lion, before he looked up to his own chest and began making his way towards it.

"What is it?" Lucy asked her older sister, who was looking through her chest deepy for something, a numerous number of arrows tucked under one of her arm and her bow in the other.

"My horn," She started as she turned to face her younger sister, "I must;ve left it on my saddle the day we went back." She explained as Lucy then understood why Susan had been looking so deeply for the item, that she couldn't actually find.

Peter then lifted the lid of his chest as well, pulling out his sword, and drawing it out of it's casing to read the words enscripted onto it. "When Aslan bears his teeth, winter meets it's death."

"When he shakes his mane... we shall have spring again." Lucy finished everyone averting their eyes to look at her, "Everyone we knew... Mr Tumnus and the Beavers... they're all gone."

Susan, looked to Peter, who just held his sword tighter and looked round to the left where Edmund should have been stood with them.

Mr Tumnus and the Beavers weren't the only things that were gone.

"I think it's time we found out what's going on." Peter said as he turned back to face Lucy and Susan.

Lucy could only nod slightly as tears began to fill into her small eyes.

Peter was right it was time that they found out what was going on and it was time that they set out to find their lost brother, Edmund.

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><p>I hope that you all enjoyed this longer second chapter. If the beginning still has you confused basically Peter, Susan and Lucy were seeing what they wanted to believe for a moment rather than the reality that Edmund wasn't actually there with them.<p>

Thanks to those who reviewed, favourited and alerted, please review and thanks for reading.

Here's the link once again: .com/watch?v=hHz5UHobd0I&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL


	3. Chapter 3

Here's the next chapter, so that it's quite a bit later up than usual. There's quite a lot in this chapter on Peter, Susan, Lucy, Trumpkin and someone else but it's needed for the next chapter which is where the action starts, so enjoy.

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><p>The water was a mix between calm and angry. The sunlight shone on to some of the water causing it to glow slighly. The sand on the very edge of the beach had become a darer colour and slightly wet and cold from the waves that had washed against it. The land around it was full of dark green plants and trees, with smal spaces of gravel like sand in the small form of a beach.<p>

The birds chruped as the waves were pushed aside by strong wood that had been cut into a simple shape. A boat moved across the top of the water moving along steadily thanks to the oers that were held by someone to have the boat be able to move so simply.

Two men, clad in the same helmets, chainmail and armour sat in the boat. One held a crossbow while one was rowing the boat. Both of them were looking around their surroundings. The one with the oers seemed more focused on something that the one with the crossbow didn't.

"He won't stop staring." The one that that was rowing said as he looked at the small creature that was on the boat.

The creature was Narnian. Well from he old Narnian tales that was. They were thought to not exsist anymore, however that was obviousy the wrong thing to believe. The creature was a dwarf to be exact. Yes he was small, but he was still very scary, especially when he stared at you for a long amount of time.

The dwarf was tied up, with rope around it's hands, feet and mouth. They could have locked the thing up in a cell, but instead they had been ordered to come out on to the river as far away from what they called civilisation as possible and kill him.

"So don't look." The other one with the crossbow said averting his eyes to look in a different direction.

"Here's far enough." The one that had been rowing the boat, dropped the oers and moved to pick up the small dwarf that they had on the boat, the other one dropping the crossbow to help. They were about to throw the Narnian creature over the boat as they had been ordered and to make sure that it did drown.

The boat shook as an arrow hit the side of it.

Susan shot her arrow at the boat hitting it directly where she had aimed. She draw another arrow and aimed towards the men again. Peter and Lucy ran along to the beach to stand beside their sister, now fully dressed in their old Narnian clothing along with their gifts from Father Christmas at hand. Peter and Lucy stopped, the blonde brother drawing his sword and pointing it in the same direction as Susan was her arrow.

"Drop him!" She shouted.

"Crows and crockery!" The said, his voice muffled by the rope around his mouth as the two soldiers looked over in shock at the three children. They then looked down at the dwarf before chucking him into the water, doing exactly what Susan had said.

Not that Susan meant it in that context.

Lucy stayed stood where she was, but she didn't look very happy. Susan still kept her arrow pointed towards the soldiers, focusing on them and them alone. Peter broke into a run and began to run towards the water. He knew that if Edmund was here then he would follow without hestitation, even though he would be rescuing a dwarf.

As soon as Peter was out of the way, one of the soldiers reached for the crossbow that they had dropped earlier. As soon as he stood back up Susan shot her arrow, the magical gift hitting the soldier square in the heart, killing him easily. The man shouted as he fell over the side of the boat, the other soldier just followed the other man into the water, hoping that it would save him the same death from a very exact and obviously well gifted archer.

Even if she seemed like such a young girl to be involved in something like this.

Peter dived into the water and grabbed a hold of the little dwarf and using the bottom of the river base to give himself the momentum to return upwards towards the sunlight began to swim back up to the beach, pulling the dwarf up to the surface with him. The little dwarf trying to swim, but was held back by the ropes that binded his hands.

As Peter dragged the actually quite heavy body of the wet dwarf out of the water, the boat that had previously been occupied by the soldiers had drifted over to the beach, how Peter didn't know and didn't even want to question it.

Lucy and Susan had made their way over to where Peter had emerged from the water. Susan's bow was now held in her right hand and her brother's stood was in her left hand and both were placed by her side as she walked towards her brother and the small Narnian that he had rescued. And Lucy who held nothing in her hands walked beside her, but she too would soon hold something of her own.

Peter placed the dwarf down on to the sand. Lucy quickly draw her dagger before dropping to her kneww to cut the ropes off of the dwarf's hands, who then moved to remove the rope from around his mouth to spit out the sea water that he had swallowed in the sodiers attemps to drown him.

Lucy stood back up and looked around at her older sister and older brother, looking at their faces. Susan and Peter were just watching the dwarf waiting for it's first move, after all they hadn't been the most trustworthy in the past.

The dwarf stood and looked at the three siblings that stood doing the same for him. "Drop him!" His tone was angry, "That's the best you can come up with?"

"A simple _'thank you' _would safice." Susan said, looking almost slightly taken aback by the statement, but she didn't make it extremly noticeable if she was.

Now that the dwarf had no rope around it's mouth the cut on his right cheek was obvious and very much more noticeable than it had been. He pointed towards the river, where the boat had once been and the soldiers who had tried to drown him, "They were doing fine drowning me without your help." His tone was one that still held anger. Susan looked over towards Peter. While Lucy remained focused on the dwarf.

"Maybe we should have let them." Peter said in reply even though the dwarf hadn't been looking directly at him when he spoke. The dwarf went silent and looked down to the sand covered ground.

"Why were they trying to kill you, anyway?" Lucy asked, not able to keep the question inside her any longer. She hadn't wanted to sound stupid, however she knew that she had.

"They're Telmarines. That's what they do." Peter, Susan and Lucy looked confused. However Peter knew that Edmund would have spoken his mind by now so Peter said the only thin that he could think of to say.

"In Narnia?"

The dwarf looked up, "Where have you been for the last few hundred years?" He asked the three, before looking down again. Lucy looked to Susan and they both smiled slightly.

"It's a bit of a long story." Lucy told the small creature. The dwarf looked up. Susan passed Peter hs sword back, while the dwarf watched the small interation carefully, focusing on the details that were on Peter's sword. Peter took the sword from his sister and then looked at the dwarf.

The dwarf seemed to realise something, but didn't seem to quite be able to put all of the pieces together as if something was missing and the three siblings could easily guess what that missing piece of the puzzle was.

Lucy's dress was orange and white and blew forward slightly in the wind, she was looking at the dwarf and he was looking at her. The youngest Pevensie's healing coridal and dagger were on her belt and she stood slightly sideways on.

Susan's dress was a purple colour with blue, her arrows were attached to a strap which was then placed over her right shoulder, the only thing that was missing off of that was her horn. She too stood slightly sideways on and she still held her bow her right hand. Susan was also watching the dwarf.

Peter stood square on facing the creature, being extremly careful of letting the dwarf near his brother, even though his brother wasn't actually here, however he was still being very cautious. He held his sword in his left hand and his clothes were heavier than they should be, due to the water, but the sun was sorting that quickly enough as it bor into his back.

You could almost imagine Edmund stood there as well, hand on his sword and wearing his favourite dark blue, greyish coloured shirt on.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," The dwarf paused, "You're it? You're the kings and queens of old?"

"High King Peter, the Magnificent." Peter stepped forward a step and held out his hand to the dwarf who just watched him.

"You probably could've left off the last bit." Susan said as Lucy pushed her hair out of her face. Peter could imagine Edmund smiling and snickering at Susan's previous comment.

The dwarf laughed, "Probably." He stopped laughing and smiled as he looked up at Peter, who was looking at him curiously still. The High King took a step back.

"You might be surprised." He said as he drew his famed sword and held it's point out towards the dwarf.

"You don't want to do that, boy." He said. Peter desperatly wanted Edmund to be here to fight the dwarf, after all he knew that Edmund hadn't gotten over the time that he had spent with the White Witch or her right hand dwarf and he wanted Edmund to get over that fear.

However he knew that his brother wasn't, so he would have to wait until another time.

"Your right, I wanted my brother too, but he's not here." The dwarf looked at them curiously.

"Where is he then?"

"King Edmund is lost somewhere, here in Narnia we do believe." Peter replied.

"Well there's only one way to find him then." The dwarf began to walk over towards the boat that was still resting against the beach's sand. "Beards and bedsteads. Maybe that horn worked after all." The dwarf said as they walked over towards the boat.

"What horn?" Susan asked now fully intrigued as to how a horn had suddenly come into this conversation and how that very horn could be her's. The four clambered in to the boat and all was explained.

* * *

><p>The woods were gaint with many trees of different sizes as Edmund walked past them all as he made his way through the thick grass and still trees. Occasional sunight shone through the woods, however most of the time it was just woodand on it's own. Edmund hated being alone it Narnia as it made him feel vunerable almost as if the White Witch could just reach out and grab a hold of him again and Edmund didn't want that to happen. Not again at least.<p>

As he made this way through the woods Edmund realised that he had now forgotten what direction he was actually heading in. He let his mind drift, not willing, but he just couldn't stop it from happening. Edmund could imagine the White Witch playing with his mind, taunting him. He could imagine her trickery when he had first met her. He could imagine her turning creatures to stone, Mr Tumnus, the small fox and even that little butterfly that flew past her head. He could imagine her ordering the wolves to hunt down his siblings that she only knew of, because of him. He could remember how useless he had felt at that moment in his life.

And he felt that way again now.

Useless, foolish and unable to do anything that he wanted to and the feeling that he felt the most, completely stupid.

Edmund continued walking until his feet were aching and he could barely walk. The youngest of the Pevensie brothers hung his head an walked in silence. The whole time that he had been here, he had so far found nothing at all that he rememebered and he hadn't seen a single Narnian, the trees hadn't talked or whispered anything to anyone or made a single sound.

There was barely even any wind blowing around the land and everything stood still, not even the grass moved nor the trees. Edmund just wished that he could meet up with his siblings again and see what they had found out about Narnia so far and why it seemed so different to what it had been before during the Golden Age when they had ruled the land.

* * *

><p>His eyes blinked open and he looked around at were he was. The ceiling was very nicely decorated for wherever it was exactly that he was. He sat up in the small bed and swung his legs over the sides. He raised a hand to his head to feel the bandage that he found on it. He could hear noises at different points in time and that bothered him, especially when he was able to heae he start to a conversation.<p>

"This bread is so stale." Said one voice.

"I'll just get him some soup. He should be coming around soon." Said a second voice, a more gentle voice.

"I don't think I hit him hard enough." The first voice spoke again. He rose from the bed a careuflly walked towards the small set of steps to see what was going on.

"Nikabrik, he's just a boy."

"He's a Telmarine, not some lost puppy. You said you were gonna get rid of him." A dwarf spoke, like the one that had knocked him out.

"No I said I'd take care of him." Said a badger. A talking badger who was the owner of the gentle voice. "We can't kill him now. I just bandaged his head. It would be like murdering a guest." The badger held a tray with a little pot, of what was presumably soup on.

"How do you think his friend are treating their guest?" The dwarf asked.

"Trumpkin knew what he was doing. It's not the boy's fault." And he chose that moment to jump out on them, startling the kind badger, co much that he dropped the try that he was holding. He made a run towards the doorway. The dwarf drew a knife and he stepped back towards were he had come from. Then he noiced the fire that was blazing and picked up one of the metal rods that sat beside it.

"Stop! Stop!" The badger was shouting as the pair set up the start of a fight scene. "Hold it. No, no!" The badger continued to shout while they started to fight.

"I told you we have killed when we had the chance." The dwarf said pointing his knife at the boy.

"You know why we can't." The badger said."

"If we're taking a vote, I'm with him." The boy replied, really beginning to have taken a liking to this talking badger.

"We can't let him go. He's seen us." The dwarf argued before trying to continue the fighting, knocking the boy down, so that he was of equal level sat on one of the steps.

"That's enough, Nikabrik! Or do I have to sit on your head again?" The badger asked the dwarf, stopping the fight. He turned to the boy, "And you. Look what you made me do. I spent half the morning on that soup."

"What are you?" The boy asked.

"You know, it's funny that you would ask that." The badger took the boys attention, "You think people would know a badger when they saw one."

"No. No, I mean... you're Narnians. You're supposed to be extinct."

"Sorry to disappoint you." The dwarf siad before walking over to the table to sit back down.

"Here you go. Still hot." The badger placed a tray of soup onto the table.

"Since when did we open a boarding house for Telmarine soliders?" The dwarf asked again, obviously still not liking the badgers way of looking at things.

"I'm not a soldier." The boy spoke up gaining both of the Narnian's attntion as he stood up. "I am Prince Caspain. The tenth."

"What are you doing here?" The dwarf asked, now seeming to be calm.

"Running away." Caspian replied, "My uncle had always wanted my throne. I suppose I have only lived this long, because he did not have an heir of his own."

"Well that changes things." The badger said.

"Yeah." The dwarf agreed, "Means we don't have to kill you ourselves."

"You're right." Caspain agreed before making a move to grab his armour.

"Where are you going?" The badger asked.

"My uncle won't stop until I am dead." Caspian told the pair of Narnian's as he put his armour on.

"But you can't leave. You're meant to save us." The badger picked up the horn that lay on the table, "Don't you know what this is?" Silence filled the small house as Prince Caspian, the dwarf and the badger all looked down at the magical horn.

Peter rowed the small Telmarine boat with little effort. Susan was either watching Peter or the dwarf, while Lucy was looking around at whatever surrounded her. Susan looked up at some of the trees that made up a wood and instantly thought of her brother; King Edmund of the Western Woods. Yet something was right about the trees, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what that something was. Susan didn't have to look at her sister to know that she was doing and thinking the same.

"They're so still." Lucy said gaining the dwarf's attention.

The dwarf looked up at the trees. "They're trees. What'd you expect?"

"They used to dance."

"Wasn't long after you left that the Telmarines invaded," Everyone's attention was on the trees and the dwarf, even Peter was listening to the dwarf's story, "Those who survived reatreated to the woods. And the trees, they retreated so deep into themselves that they haven't been heard from since."

"I don't understand." Lucy started, "How could Aslan have let this happen?"

"Aslan?" The dwarf was hald questioning Lucy's knowledge when he spoke, "Thought he abandoned us when you lot did." The Narnian looked to the water and now one knew exactly what to say.

"We didn't mean to leave, you know." Peter said breaking the silence as he continued to row the boat along the water.

The dwarf looked up. "Makes no difference now, does it."

"Get us to the Narnian's... and it will." Peter said determandly. They weren't going to let Narnia or Edmund down.

* * *

><p>The woods were getting colder and making the youngest Pevensie brother fell very cold in his school uniform, but Edmund could strangely still feel the sun trying to break through the woods still and silent trees to warm his body, mind and soul again. The coldness that he was feeling was reminding him so much of the time that he had spent with the White Witch, Jadis.<p>

The witch who had imprisoned him, tried to take his family from him, turned many Narnians to stone and killed loads who didn't deserve to die. She had then set up a camp and tied him to a tree and had her dwarf keep a close eye on him and then she had fought the Battle of Beruna against them all, proving that she had more power than the four Pevensie's had expected that she had held. She had nearly killed him and Peter, but Aslan had arrived and saved his brother and then Lucy had saved him using her coridal, her beloved gift from Father Christmas, who had visited Edmund the first winter that he was a King and given him an extra present.

And the warmth reminded him of the time that he had spent with the great lion Aslan.

Aslan who had forgiven him instantly and had cared for him exactly the same as he had Peter, Susan and Lucy, as well as every other creature that lived in Narnia, in his army or not. Aslan who had given him a sword and a very trusted horse called Phillip to be his friend. Aslan who had reunighted him with his family and given him the best lessons and time of his life. However when they had become the Kings and Queens of Narnia, Aslan had left them that night to fare alone with each other and their found friends for company and the four children had never seen him again even years later.

Then Edmund tripped over nothing at all really and found himself laying on the sand. The waves crashed against the beach and Edmund couldn't help but smile he was out of the woods.

Edmund loved his new surroundings as they were much better than his old surroundings and they were so much brighter as well. The young Pevensie no longer felt at the grasp of the White Witch. Picking himself up off of the ground Edmund walked across the beach. It was warmer here than it was in the woods and Edmund quickly pulled off his hat, scarf and blazer as he continued to walk allowing the sun to warm his back.

Then he looked up and noticed the ruins of what looked like a castle. Edmund didn't remember there being any ruins in Narnia, but that didn't seem to matter at the moment. Because when Edmund looked around it made sense as to where he was.

Cair Paravel.

* * *

><p>The boat stopped at the beaches end and the little dwarf jumped out of the boat with a length of rope. Lucy climbed out next, followed by Susan and then Peter. Lucy looked around at the beach that was surrounded by trees. She knew it wasn't wise, but she began to walk across the sand.<p>

The dwarf chucked the little anchor on the end of the rope into the sand as Susan and Peter pulled on the rope to bring the boat onto the sand covered land. Lucy held on hand lightly on the small hilt of her dagger as she walked across the gravel like sand that was beneath her feet as she looked around before she noticed a black bear.

"Hello, there." She said to the bear with a smile. Susan and Peter looked over at her as she continued to walk towards the bear who just growled in responce to her words. "It's all right. We're friends."

The dwarf walked along the sound and hearing the bear looked over in the direction that he heard the sound come from to see Lucy getting ever closer to the creature. "Don't move, Your Majesty." Lucy turned around to face the dwarf wondering why he was telling her not to move closer to what was a friend of the four Kings and Queen's form the Golden age. She wasn't looking behind her, so she didn't she the bear begin to charge towards her.

That was until she turned around to face the creature and then she understood the dwarf's point.

Fear gripped at Lucy as she turned and ran towards her older siblings and the small dwarf, the bear chasing her and gaining on her quickly. The dwarf ran towards the boat. And Susan drew her bow and an arrow and began to run towards Lucy and the bear that persuied her.

"Stay away from her!" She shouted, nervousness for her younger sister showed a hint of being present in her voice. Peter headed to the boat to grab his sword and shield. The dwarf too headed towards the boat to grab something.

Lucy looked over her shoulder at the bear that was quickly picking up it's pace to nearly step on her feet. Lucy was breathing heavily from all of the running that she had done at such a fast and rushed pace and she was sure that she could feel herself lose her balance as she looked back towards the boat. There was a chance that Lucy would have reached her siblings had she not tripped and fell to the ground.

Susan held her arrow still and in the back of her mind she could hear Edmund's voice shouting at her, telling her to shoot. Lucy screamed as the bear jumped up to stand on it's back legs and she was sure that it was going to kill her before an arrow peirced into the beasts flesh.

* * *

><p>Caspian struggled to pick his legs up through the tall grass. He stopped and they made their movement so obvious to him.<p>

"I can hear you." Caspian said as he turned around. The dwarf and badger came out from their hiding point taht was behind two trees.

"I just think we should wait for the kings and queens." The badger said before Caspian turned around and continued walking. "Fine! Go then! See if the others will be as understanding!"

"Or maybe I'll come with you." Nikabrick started as he and the badger followed behind, "I want to see you explain things to the minotaurs." Caspian stopped and turned again.

"Minotaurs? They're real?"

"And very bad tempered." Badger told him.

"Yeah, not to mention big." Nikabrick spoke again.

"Huge."

"What about centaurs? Do they still exist?" Caspian asked as they started walking again.

"Well, the centaurs will probably fight in your side. But there's no telling what the others will do." Badger told him. Caspian stopped walking.

"What about Aslan?" Caspian asked not knowing whether it was the right thing to ask or not at this moment in time. Badger and Nikabrick stopped walking and turned to face him.

"How do you know so much about us?" Nikabrick asked.

"Stories." Caspain replied.

"Wait a minute. Your father told you stories about Narnia?" Badger asked.

"No, my professor, he..." Caspian trailed off, "Listen, I'm sorry. These are not the kind of questions you should be asking" The Prince started to walk again. Badger sniffed the air.

"What is it?" Nikabrick asked.

"Human."

"Him?"

"No. Them." Badger said as he looked over in the direction of many Telmarine soldiers who were all carring crossbows and swords at hand.

"There they are!" One of screamed.

"Run!" Caspian shouted before he badger and Nikabrick began to do so. The soldiers followed them shooting numerous numbers of arrows in their direction. "Now!" The soldiers shouted as they continued to shoot at them. One arrow hit badger. Nikabrick stopped and turned and so did Caspian.

"Oh, no." Nikabrick said before starting to run towards his fallen friend.

"Wait. I'll go." Caspain ran to badger.

"Take it. Go! It's more important than I am." He held out the horn to Caspian who took it and put it away. He watched the soldiers approch and suddnely start falling to the ground, yelling. Caspian watched for a moment before reaching down to pick up badger and make a ran for it. The soldiers still firering at them and still they were being cut down by this mysterious force.

"Get him out of here." Caspian said as he gave badger to Nikabrick, he then turned to face the soldiers and drew his sword. Only one soldier remained and he threw down his crossbow and drew his sword cutting at the grass to find the hidden killer, Caspian just watched until that one remaining soldier fell as well. Then whatever it was came towards him. It jumped out of the grass, Caspian landed on his back, a small sword being pointed at him by a mouse.

"Choose your last words carefully, Telmarine."

"You are a mouse."

"I was hoping for something a little more original. Pick up your sword." Caspian looked over at his sword before looking back at the mouse.

"No, thanks."

"Pick it up! I will not fight an unarmed man."

"Which is why I might live longer if I choose not to cross blades with you, noble mouse." Caspian was desperatly trying to find a way out of this situation.

"I said I would not fight you. I didn't say I'd let you live!"

"Reepicheep!" Badger called, "Stay your blade!"

"Trufflehunter?" Reepicheep replied and Caspian now knew that the badger was called Trufflehunter. What strange manes these Narnian's had. "I trust you have a very good reason for this untimely interruption."

"He dosen't. Go ahead." Nikabrick said.

"He's the one who blew the horn." Trufflehunter told the mouse.

"What?" The mouse was in shock.

"Then let him bring it forward." Said a new voice. Caspain looked uo to see a centaur that carried a sword walking towards them with three others following him. "This is the reason we have gathered."

* * *

><p>The arrow looked like one of Susan's.<p>

Lucy looked over at her brother and sister and the dwarf and saw that Susan's arrow hadn't moved, but someone else had shot the arrow that had just saved her life.

The dwarf.

Susan lowered her bow and the arrow that it still held and turned around to look at the dwarf. Lucy did the same. The little dwarf held a bow in his hand and had obviously just shot the arrow that had killed the bear instantly. He too lower his bow. Peter still held his sword, but watched the dwarf with new founded care for it having just saved his younger sister's life. Maybe the dwarf's weren't as bad anymore as they used to be when they had served her. The White Witch, Jadis.

"Why wouldn't he stop?" Susan asked as the dwarf walked past her.

"I suspect he was hungry." The dwarf waked by and Peter ran after him, Susan staying still for a moment to think, before she to followed.

Lucy remained in the same postition she had been in when the bear had made it's strke to try and kill her, just looking at the bear in shock and sadness. Peter reached her first, as he had longer legs than the dwarf and was much faster than the dwarf and Susan anyway.

He placed his hand underneath the top of Lucy's arm and pulled her up off of the ground, never taking his eyes off of the bear, pointing the tip of his sword at it, in case it jumped up. Luct placed a hand on to Peter's arm as she stood close to her older brother, completely petrified. The dwarf walked up beside them poking the bear with his bow to check that it was definatly dead. Peter lowered his sword, trusting the dwarf more than he had done before the incident.

"Thanks." Lucy said feeling that the dwarf deserved the one simple word to be said to it. Susan now stood with her siblings as well, her bow still held with the arrow as well. Peter could imagine Edmund talking about how wild the bear was, after all the bears that had fought with them before were nothing od the sort.

"I don't think he could talk at all." Peter said. The dwaf was still poking the bear with it's bow.

"Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, and that's what you become." Susan seemed to understand just about where the dwarf was coming from as she figgited slightly on the spot. The dwarf drew his knife and knelt down by the bear, "You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember."

Lucy gasped and berried her head into Peter as the dwarf began to remove the bears fur. Peter knew that they had to find Edmund really quickly before there wasn't an Edmind for them to find, because the dwarf was right and Peter was sure that Edmund had found or would find this out for himself soon.

Narnia was a more savage place than they all remembered.

* * *

><p>Sorry for the late update I will make my next one much quicker. Also there will be lot's of action from the next chapter onwards, so that will probaly be the trailer from<p>

Thanks for reviewing, please reviewing and thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 4

Okay I said that I would update quicker and I will. So here's the next chapter with more action than the ones before it.

* * *

><p>Edmund walked around the ruins of Cair Paravel trying to make out whatever parts of it that he could. After walking for a few minutes Edmund was able to spot what looked to be four thrones. The same four thrones that he and his siblings had once sat upon to rule Narnia during the Golden Age. A time of peace for everyone. Well, it was peaceful most of the time, anyway.<p>

Cair Paravel was a complete mess.

The fourteen year old continued walking around walking past one of the growing apple trees that now surrounded the ruined castle that had once stood in all of it's glory in the shinning sunlight.

Edmund bent down next to a rock and looked at it closely. Edmund, out of the rest of his siblings, had the best knowledge on History.

"Catapults." He said to himself before looking to his left to see a broken down wooden door that was once hidden behind a wall. A moveable wall. Edmund stood and walked over towards the door. He sent a glance down the tunnel, looking at how dark it was, before he opened his school bag and pulled out his new torch.

He walked carefully down the old stone stairs, watching his step, so as not to trip and fall. The torch lit his way and was very helpful in ensuring that he didn't slip. Edmund turned the torch off when he had reached the bottom of the stairs as the place was filled with bright light. He put the silver torch into his bag once again before looking forward towards the four chests that had statues placed behind them.

The metal gates were already pushed back, opened by someone else who had been here earlier. Edmund walked over towards the chests. Noticing that Peter, Susan and Lucy's were open already. As he walked past them he noticed that Lucy's dagger and healing coridal, Susan's bow and arrow and Peter's sword and shield were all gone.

Edmund walked towards the one chest that wasn't open. His. He lifted the lid and pulled out his old helmet, looking at it for a moment before throwing it back in. He then pulled out his sword and old shield from the Battle of Beruna that Aslan had given to him. Edmund placed them down onto the dust covered floor and began riffling through the chest for some of his old Narnian clothing that would still fit him in his current age, throwing the lcothing out of the chest left, right and center. It took him quite a while to get to the bottom of the chest where his oldest Narnian clothes, but he did eventually manage it.

He chucked all of the other clothes back into the chest very uncerimonially, but Edmund couldn't exactly care at the moment. His siblings had been here so they couldn't be too far away as they hadn't even been here for a whole day yet.

Edmund walked back out through the metal gates and up the stairs once again and back out into the sunshine and the daylight hours that surrounded the ruins of the old Narnian castle. He was now clothed in a dark blue coloured shirt, trousers and his old combat boots. His sword was at his side and his shield was carried on his back.

Edmund began walking again, heading into the woods again at a different point this time, trying to get his bearings back now and figure out where he was going, maybe towards the river Rush, but then Edmund remembered waht Susan had told him about water eroding away the soil or something like that. Edmund didn't really remember as he wasn't really listening.

When he reached the river Rush, Susan had indeed been proved right and Edmund knew that there was no way he could jump across such a wide gorge. Edmund looked around and suddenly remembered a passage that he had found once that lead to a ford near Beruna. He had tried to take his siblings that way before when they had ruled Narnia, however they had never gotten round to doing so.

So that was the way that Edmund headed.

* * *

><p>"I don't remember this way." Susan said as she walked around the curve in the path following her older brother.<p>

"That's the problem with girls. You can't carry a map in your head." Peter said looking over his shoulder as he walked along the path.

"That's because our heads have something in them." Lucy replied as she walked alongside her sister. They then continued walking in silence for a short moment.

"I wish he'd just listen to the D.L.F. in the first place." Susan said in a hushed tone to Lucy. Edmund would have asked what a D.L.F. was, so Lucy sent a glance back towards the little dwarf that followed along behind them at the back who looked back at her in question.

"Dear Little Friend." She said before walking off ahead with Susan.

"Oh, that's not at all patronising, is it?" The dwarf stopped and asked the retorical question, or D.L.F. as he should now be called. Peter continued walking into a dead end and stopped looking properly confused as he looked around.

"I'm not lost." Peter mumbled.

"No." The dwarf said. He had overtaken Susan and Lucy a little way back along the path. "Your just going the wrong way." He said to the High King as he jumped off of a rock.

"You last saw Caspian at the Shuddering Woods, and the quickest way there is to cross at the river Rush."

"But unless I'm mistaken, there's no crossing in these parts." The dwarf said.

"That explains it, then. You're mistaken." Peter growled an answer back at the dwarf before continuing to walk, his sisters and the dwarf following slong behind him. They continued walking through the land of Narnia until Peter came to an abrupt halt at the end of the land. Susan and Lucy walked over to stand beside him and the three of them looked down from the high ledge. Water, rushing water.

"You see, over time, water erodes the earth's soil, carving deeper..." Susan started to try anf explain to Peter and mainly to Lucy.

"Oh, shut up." Peter said cutting his sister off. The three siblings remained stood by the edge of the ledge. Lucy turned to face the dwarf.

"Is there a way down?" She asked.

"Yeah, falling." The D.L.F. replied.

"Well, we weren't lost." Peter and Susan turned to face the dwarf as well.

"There's a ford near Beruna. How do you feel about swimming" The dwarf asked the three siblings.

"I'd rather that than walking." Susan replied as she started walking again following the small dwarf. Lucy, however had turned back around to face the other side of the river's high ledge.

"Edmund?" She spoke. It was a question, but to herself. Peter and Susan slowly slowed down their walk as if to stop. "It's Edmund! It's Edmund over there!" Lucy said excitedly as she turned quickly to face her older brother and sister and the dwarf, pointing with her arm outstreched towards the other side of the ledge. A smile wide on her face.

Susan and the dwarf stopped and turned to face Lucy and Peter had already done the same.

"Don't you see? He's right..." Lucy spun herself back around to face the ledge again, "...there." The smile had vanished from her face as she saw the other side of the ledge empty.

"Do you see him now?" The dwarf asked her.

"I'm not crazy." Lucy replied, turning to face the dwarf. "He was there. What if he wanted us to follow him. We should follow him." Lucy had turned to Peter.

"I'm sure there are any number of people hidden in this wood somewhere Lu. Just like that bear."

"I think I know my own brother when I see him." Lucy replied anger seeping in to her tone at her brother not believing her.

"Look, I'm not about to jump off a cliff for a King who may or not be over there." The dwarf told her.

Peter turned back to look over at the other ledge where Lucy had apperently seen her older brother. "Why wouldn't I have seen him?" Peter asked.

"Maybe you weren't looking." Lucy replied.

"Why wouldn't he have heard you shouting?" Peter asked his sister another question.

"Maybe he wasn't listening." The younger spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Lu." Peter said sadly before walking off with Susan and the dwarf in the direction that they had just come in. Lucy turned and looked back over at the other side of the cliff, still one hundred percent sure that she had seen Edmund over there. She turned back round and looked at the trees.

That's when she saw something else. The shaped outline of a golden lion. And Lucy only knew one golden lion. Aslan. Lucy went to walk forward as if to follow her siblings and the dwarf, however the lion just shook his head and let out a low growl, making Lucy stop and look at the lion once again. Aslan was looking in the other direction, towards the side of the cliff where she had seen Edmund.

"Lucy!" Peter's voice shouted back. Lucy looked over in the direction where they had headed and then she looked back to Aslan, who was now gone as well and Lucy's heart sank as she turned and sadly followed her siblings towards the fort at Beruna.

* * *

><p>Night fell suddenly like a dark blanket covering everything with it's darkness.<p>

"Kill him" Was the choursed shout as fingers, paws and claws were pointed into a center point, by centaurs, bears, fauns and mnay other Narnian creatures that had been thought for a long time to have been extinct.

"Telmarine!" "Lair!" "Murderer!" More creatures shouted and pointed. Caspian looked around the circle nervously.

"All this horn proves is they've stolen yet another thing from us!" The dwarf, Nikabrick, shouted out and pointing to Caspian.

"I didn't steal anything." Caspian spoke, trying to make his voice sound strong despite his growing nerves.

"Didn't steal anything? Shall we listed the things that Telmarines have taken." Shouted out yet another of the creatures that surrounded the young Telmarine Prince.

"Our homes!" A female centaur shouted lifting her sword to point it at Caspian.

"Our land!"

"Our freedom!" A faun shouted out. Nikabrick held a hand out to it as if in praise of the point that it had raised.

"Our lives!"

"You stole Narnia!"

"You would hold me accountable for all the crimes of my people?" Caspian asked.

"Accountable... and punishable." Nikabrick said walking closer to the Prince.

"HA! That is rich coming from you, dwarf." Reepicheap jumped out, finally making his presence known to everyone else, drawing his small sword, "Or have you forrgotten it was your people who fought alongside the White Witch?" The small mouse asked pointing his blade at Nikabrick dangerouslyclose to the dwarf's body at times.

The dwarf flicked at the blade with his ring covered fingers, "And I'd gladly do it again, if it would rid us of these barbarians."

"Then it's luckat it is not in your power to bring her back." Badger walked towards the Prince, still on Caspian's side even if no one else was. "Or are you suggesting that we ask this boy to go against Aslan now?" Caspian gripped the magical horn tighter at the mention of the great lion.

Creatures shouted out. Badger inturrupted them.

"Some of you may have forgotten, but we badgers remember well, that Narnia was never right except when a Son of Adam was king."

"He's a Telmarine! Why would we want him as our King?" Nikabrick asked throwing his hands up into the air.

"Because I can help you." Caspian spoke again.

"It's a trick!" Some shouted whilst others shouted something along the llines of, "At least hear him out!"

"Beyond these woods, I'm a prince. The Telmarine throne is rightfully mine! Help me claim it, and I can bring peace between us."

"It is true. The time is ripe." The centaur from before stepped forward, out of the crowd, "I watch the skies, for it is mine to watch as it is yours to remember, badger." "Tarva, the lord of victory, and Alambil, the lady of peace, have come together in the high heavens. And now here, a Son of Adam has come forth... to offer us back our freedom."

"Is this possible? Do you really think there could be peace?" Asked a squirrel who sat on a tree. "Do you? I mean, really?"

"Two days ago, I didn't believe in the existance of talking animals... or dwarfs... or centaurs. Yet here you are in strength and numbers that we Telmarines could never have imagined. Whether this horn is magic or not, it brought us together. And together, we have a chance to take back what it ours."

"If you will lead us, then my sons and I..." The centaur paused to draw his sword, "Offer you our swords." Every other centaur around him draw their swords as well and held them out to Caspian. Fauns and even minotaurs had also drawn whatever weapon they had and held them out to Caspian, who could do nothing, but just looked around the circle of creatures in shock and happiness.

"And we offer you our lives, unreservedly." Reepicheap said bowing down with his drawn sword.

"Miraz'a army will not be far behind us, sire." Badger pointed out.

"If we are to be ready for them, we need to hurry to find soldiers and weapons." Caspian looked around the circle at evereone's faces, "I'm sure they will be here soon."

* * *

><p>Trees were being cut down left, right and center as the three siblings and the little D.L.F. watched the soldiers, that they had presumed to be Telmarine soldiers work way at building something, they could only guess that they were attempting to build a bridge. One to lead them to the Narnians and to Caspian. The children poked their heads over some of the wood that they had already cut to watch this and remain hidden, however it chucked out their plan of swimming across.<p>

The D.L.F. looked over to the right, Peter, Susan and Lucy following his line of sight before spotting to horses, all of them ducked down lower in a weak attempt to remain unnoticed.

"Perhaps this wasn't the best way to come after all." Susan whispered to Peter as they ducked down, the little dwarf grabbed a hold of one of his arrows to have it ready to use if they needed it. After all his bow was already held in his hands. Lucy remained ducked down, while Peter and Susan took another look up the horses had come to a halt and their riders were dismounting.

Peter stood, his back bent as he made his way back towards the trees and the wood that they had just come from, the dwarf followed his bow and arrow still ready to be used at any time. Susan and Lucy carefully did the same after Lucy had sent one last glance over at the bridge.

A little while later the four had arrived at the exact same point that they had been in at first when Lucy had thought that she had seen Edmund. Lucy had now already told her brother and sister of how she had then seen Aslan who had been pointing her in the direction of where she thought she had seen her brother. However as she had already thought that they would say that they didn't believe her.

"So where exactly do you think you saw Edmund and Aslan?" Peter asked as Lucy looked over at the place where she thought she had seen Aslan before she turned to look to the other side of the river where she had seen Edmund. She turned back to face Peter and Susan wordlessly before she spoke again.

"I wish you'd all stop trying to sound like grown ups." She then turned to the dwarf, "I didn't think I saw him, I did see him." She then walked away from them, closer to where she thought that she had seen her brother and to where Aslan had been pointing too with his paw.

"I am a grown up." The dwarf commented.

"It was right over..." The piece of land that Lucy was stood on gave way and she screamed. Susan shouted out, "Lucy!" of she saw her sister fall, what all of them presumed to be to her death or at least a serious injury. The dwarf was first to reach the gaint hole in the land, Susan and Peter quickly following.

Lucy looked down at the river. "...Here." Lucy said as she looked back up at her siblings and dear little friend as she remained sat on a lower peace of land that seemed to be a path that was leading down to the river Rush.

The four began to make their way carefully down the dangerous path. Peter went at the back and Lucy walked along in front with the little dwarf following along behind her. She had already reached the river and was making her way across the big stones that had made a path across the river. She misplaced her foot on one and nearly fell backwards, but her dear little friend grabbed onto her arm and back and managed to catch her, Lucy gave him a smile, before she continued to walk across the path. Susan and Peter followed along behind. Lucy was looking up at the sky for a moment while she waited for the oldest in her family to catch up.

The sun shone brightly and the trees were still as unmoving as they were before, but the sunlight seemed to make things look a little better. When Susan and Peter had managed to catch up Lucy continued, everyone continuing to follow her. As Lucy made it across and turned to wait for her older brother and sister and the little dwarf again, she silently thanked Aslan for the hint and she showing her something of her brother, who when Lucy had seen him on the other side, hadn't been wearing his school uniform. She smiled before all of the group continued walking to find a place that was safe to use as a place to sleep at tonight.

The night time darkness settled in and Lucy lay on the dark green grass looking up at the sky, her hands behind her head that she was using as some kind of bad pillow. Peter and the D.L.F. were already asleep.

"Lucy, are you awake?" Susan asked in a whisper. Lucy didn't answer. Susan sat up and looked at Lucy noticing that she was still awake. "Why do you think I didn't see Edmund and Aslan?" Susan asked her younger sister, resting her body weight on her left arm. Lucy turned to face her sister slightly before rolling over on to her side and resting her weight onto her right arm.

"You believe me?" Lucy asked in shock.

"Well we got across the gorge." Susan pointed out.

"I don't know." Lucy replied honestly after a moment of silence. "Maybe you didn't really want to."

"You always knew we'd be coming back here, didn't you?" Susan asked. Lucy nodded.

"I hoped so." Susan laid back down on the grass, her right arm behind her head.

"I finally just got used to the idea of being in England."

"But you're happy to be here, aren't you?"

"While it lasts." Lucy looked down at the ground sadly before she too laid back down, arms across her chest, looking up at the sky with the fire blazing behind her. Little did the two sisters know that the dear little friend had listened to all of their conversation.

* * *

><p><em>The fire was out when Lucy gently opened her eyes and sat up. She looked around the circle of her, Peter, Susan and the D.L.F. before flicking her head round to look at another part of the wood. She stood up and began to walk towards where she had just been looking, before stopping a looking back at her family. She turned her head and ran off in the wood along the grass covered path, dashing off into the sunlight and mix of trees.<em>

_She walked a little while later making her way around any tree branches that were in her way, but most of the path was clear and straight forward to walk on without falling over anything._

_Lucy looked at the still trees, wishing that they could talk to her once again. She wondered if Edmund had been wishing the same thing when she had seen him before. After all the trees would have been his only company unless he had found some, but considering that had she had nearly been killed by a bear and that they had only found the dwarf by chance, she highly doubted that._

_Lucy continued walking, carefully pushing branch out of her way as she turned a corner. She continued to look around and after a moment she spotted somthing that put a small smile onto her face. Little light pink and white tinted blossoms blew out in front of her, blowing her hair slightly as they formed into the same of a person who laughed before blowing away into the sky. The sun shinning brightly as Lucy looked up at the disappearing blossoms in shock and awe before she continued walking. More blossoms gathering around her as she did so._

_One appeared in front of her and pointed her into a different direction. Lucy turned around and saw the trees parting to make a straight path for her to walk down. Lucy thought that she could hear something like a roaring sound. Lucy started to walk down the path before she heard something or someone call out her name in a light whisper._

_"Lucy." The young girl continued to walk forward not believeing it to be true until she heard the voice agin, "Lucy." Lucy smiled and quickened her pace before breaking into a run in the direction of the voice. She rounded a corner and there he was. Stood on a high rock with the sun shinning down onto his back. Ther stood Narnia's true ruler in all of his glory._

_"Aslan!" Lucy ran to the lion placing and hand in his mane and a hand on his forehead, burring her face in to his mane. "I've missed you so much!" She said quietly before removing her hands and head from the lion and standing back to look at him in full veiw. "You've grown."_

_"Every year you grow... so shall I." The lion said and Lucy was right, he was taller, he had grown, just like she had. Lucy smiled, but that smile faded._

_"Where have you been? Why haven't you come to help us?" She asked the lion, interested to know why he hadn't been there for them like he had before. Why he hadn't come to them with Edmund safely in tow._

_"Things never happen the same way twice, dear one." Aslan told her. Lucy looked at him quizzicaly before she heard a branch crack, her head turning to the direction of the noise and then her eyes opened and Aslan was gone._

* * *

><p>Edmund woke up somewhere along the path. He had stopped walking when it began to get dark, mainly because his leg were aching, but he realised that he must have fallen asleep at some point. The young boy rose to his feet and began to walk again. It wouldn't take him long to reach the ford at Beruna now and Edmund could see that he was getting closer from his surroundings. He knew that he would have to swim across to the other side, but at least that would be a rest from walking, however it would still take a lot of the fourteen year olds energy to get across the water successfully.<p>

Edmund hadn't yet seen the ford at Beruna, but he was thinking that it was the same as it was before, but it really wasn't. Edmund hadn't had anyone to tell him of the Telmarine's being in Narnia nor had he seen what Peter, Susan, Lucy and the D.L.F had.

While most of the people continued working, six stood seperate form the rest, doing nothing.

"How much did they take?" One asked. He was the one who seemed to hold the most power over all of the people who worked here. One stood next to this man, three stood opposite him and one stood alone by an empty wagon. It was he who the leader was adressing the question too.

"Enough weapons and armour for two regiments." He replied, however he wasn't finished yet, "But... there's more." He lifted the little door, gate like thing that had words engraved into it that hadn't been there before."

"_You were right to fear the woods._" The leader read off of the wood.

"_X?_" The man stood next to him asked.

"Caspian. The tenth." The leader replied.

"I apologise, my lord. The blame is mine." The man opposite the now claimed lord said. The man stood next to the lord smiled, enjoying his incredibly.

The lord nodded, "I know." He took some steps forward towards the man, "Tell me, general..." He drew the general's sword, "...how many men did you lose?"

"None, my lord." The general replied.

"None?"

"They came like ghosts, in the dead of night. We never saw them." The general spoke again to the lord.

"Then how do you explain your injuries?" The lord asked. The general just looked confused switching his eyes between the lord and the manstood next to him. Before the lord hit him across the face with the hilt of the general's sword that the lord had taken earlier. "I asked... how many men were killed during this bloody Narnian attack?" The general looked up at the lord, nose and lip both bleeding, the lord held the hilt of the sword pointed toward the general, " Of which you were a fortunare survivor."

"General... how many?" The lord pushed for an answer.

The general grabbed a hold of the hilt of his sword taking it from the lords grasp, "Three." The lord turned and walked away, satisfied with the answer. The man who had been stood next to him followed.

"I apologise, Lord Sopespian." The lord who had just spoken to the general was now speaking to the man who had been stood next to him. This man two was obviously a lord as well. "Caspian is not a victim of this savage uprising. He is the instigator. It seems Narnia is in need of a new king." The lord told lord Sopespian.

"And who will that king be, lord Miraz?" Lord Sopespian asked.

"Who do you think, it will be me." Miraz replied.

It was at this moment that Edmund arrived and looked around in slight confusion, but he didn't think that these people had invaded Narnia. He didn't even know that they were the Telmarines. Edmund walked slowly through the workbase, thinking that he should ask what was going on, but he had no clue really on who to ask until he spotted a man who looked like the one that was in control of all of this, so Edmund headed towards him.

"Um excuse me." Edmund said as he walked over towards the man, who turned to face him, "Could you help me?" The person that Edmund was speaking to was Lord Miraz, who wasn't known for being nice, but the lord suddenly seemed to have a good, nice side. He surprized lord Sosespian with his response anyhow.

"Of course, why don't you come with us back to the castle and we can figure out where you are headed."

"Oh," Edmund was shocked by the kindness of a man who he didn't even know, "Thank you."

"You're most welcome, I'm lord Miraz." The lord told the boy expecting to know his name in return.

"Edmund." The young king replied, however he decided to leave the king part off for the moment.

"Well, Edmund." The lord began calling Edmund by his name now, "Can you ride a horse?"

"Yes my lord." Edmund wanted to sound polite.

"Please call me Miraz." The lord said as he climbed onto his horse, reaching a hand out to Edmund who was still on the ground. Edmund took the hand and was pulled up onto the horse's back.

"Hurry up lord Sopespian, we'll meet you back at the castle." Lord Miraz said before galloping off with Edmund towards his castle, lord Sopespian following.

* * *

><p>Lucy opened her eyes and sat up, now fully awake. Peter, Susan and the D.L.F. were still asleep. Lucy was closest to her sister, so decided to try and wake her up. She also knew that Susan wasn't always a heavy sleeper, but in this case she was.<p>

"Susan! Wake up!"

Susan did hear Lucy, or at least Lucy thought that she did, "Certainly, Lu." Susan rolled over onto her front,"Whatever you like."

Lucy heard the sound of something like a snapping twig or branch, much like she had heard when Aslan had disappeared from her view in her dream like state just a moment ago. Lucy climbed to her feet sending one last look at her sleeping siblings before beginning to walk again, away from their camp. She walked for a while before heading over to a tree and placing a light hand onto the bark of it.

"Wake up." She looked up at the sun lit sky. This Narnia was the opposite Narnia to the one that she had seen in her dream. This was the savage Narnia, where the trees were gone. For now anyway. She removed her hand and began walking again along the thin path that was between the trees.

"Aslan?" Lucy said out loud as she continued walking, looking for the great lion that she had seen in her dream and she wasn't expecting the strong hand that covered her mouth and the one that was placed on her shoulder nor the force that pulled her back down the path slightly. When she was against the wall of bushes she was able to look at who her attacker was and she was surprised to see that it was her own brother, Peter.

The older blonde removed the hand from her mouth, but not the one from her shoulder. The pair moved over, so that they could look at what Peter had spotted from behind the safety of the bushes. What they saw was a minotuar with armour covering it's shoulders and it was carring a bow and some arrows as well as an axe. Typical minotaur style.

Peter put a finger to his lips as a symbol for Lucy to keep quiet. The youngest Pevensie, whose hands were currently gripping on to the bushes seemed to understand as she remained perfectly silent. Her eyes followed her brothers movement as he walked forward. It was only then that Lucy noticed that her older brother was carring his sword with him. Lucy moved slightly so that she had a better view from where she was behind the bushes to keep an eye on her brother still.

Peter drew his sword, the blade catching in the sunlight and edged closer towards the passing minotaur who hadn't yet noticed them. Suddenly there was a shout that caught Peter off guard and someone else had jumped in front of him, who they hadn't before seen. Lucy couldn't tell who it was from her distance, however she couldn't fail to notice how the sunlight caught onto a silver metal blade that they held.

* * *

><p>Most of the next chapter is already written, so I should have it uploaded quite quickly. I'll update <em>The Just <em>next.

Thanks to those who have reviewed, favourited and alerted this story, please review and thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

I tired to make this chapter a little longer, because I haven't updated in a while due to it being Christmas and New Year, but here is chapter 5 for you all and I will update The Just, hopefully today as well.

* * *

><p>Two horses galloped across the bridge and into the castle. The whole journey Edmund had been as silent as the trees were, not wanting to say anything that could jepertise how nice these people were being to him.<p>

For Edmund was sure that the person who was bringing him back to this castle had no idea to who he really was and he wanted to keep it that way. Lord Miraz was someone that Edmund had never heard of before, but he seemed nice enough.

He was even letting Edmund call him Miraz.

When they reached the courtyard Lord Sopespian dimounted his horse. Lord MIraz too did the same before offering a hand to Edmund, who took it carefully and jumped down to the floor. Edmund was also trying to ignore the glares that Lord Sopespian was giving him as the Lord Miraz lead him inside the castle.

They stopped outside of a room that Miraz opened and walked into signalling for Edmund to follow him into the room. The room was gaint, much bigger than Edmund had ever seen in Narnia before.

"You may stay here until you can manage to find your way." Miraz told Edmund who could only manage to nod before he was able to manage a small _'thank you' _to give the Lord who was being so kind as to help him.

"Does he even know where he's going." Lord Sopespian said. Edmund was sure that he hated that man. Or that Lord Sopespian seemed to hate him for some reason.

"Lord Sopespian why don't you make yourself useful and do something." Miraz told the Lord who promptly left, but Edmund noticed the glare that he was sent as the Lord left. "Know Edmund if it's any help I can get our professor, Doctor Cornelius, to help you find your way."

"Thank you My Lord." Edmund replied. Miraz bowed his head before once again asking Edmund to follow him. They had only walked a little way donw the corridor when a solider came up to Lord Miraz with a message. The Lord said that he was on his way and showed Edmund the door that he needed before leaving.

The young King walked up to the door and despite it being open he knocked on it a few times. The person, that Edmund presumed to be Doctor Cornelius, looked up at him stood. The man didn't know what to say as he didn't speak he just walked over to Edmund in silence. Still being careful as to what he said, Edmund spoke.

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"Oh, yes of course come in." The professor said moving to the side to allow Edmund to enter the room and get out of the corridor, before shutting the door behind him. Edmund didn't know why, but being in this room felt safer than being in the rest of the castle.

Edmund's eye caught the book that was open on the desk and he walked over to it. He took a look at it skim reading the page of writting before turning his head to the picture that was on the page opposite as soon as Edmund saw what the picture was of he didn't hesitate to place a forceful hand over the drawing as quickly as he could.

The professor walked up behind him to see what had caught Edmund's eye and as soon as he realised what the book was that he had left open he pulled it out from underneath Edmund's hand and shut it, placing it back onto the self that it came from.

"I'm so sorry, Your Highness."

Edmund gasped. He knew. This man knew who he was, so did that mean that everyone else in this castle knew? As much as Edmund thought that Lord Miraz didn't know who he was it was possible and it was even more possible that that Lord Sopespian knew who he was from all of those looks that he had kept giving him earlier.

Edmund was panicing now.

"Your Highness are you alright?" Cornelius asked. Edmund turned his head to face him.

"Yeah I'm fine, but can I ask. How do you know who I am?"

"I have for many years studied the legends of your rien, King Edmund."

"T...that's great." Edmund replied, now feeling extremly unsure of what he was suposed to do now.

"You don't sound okay, Your Highness."

"N..no I..I am it..it's just," Edmund paused and Cornelius looked at him waiting for him to continue, "I haven't told anyone who I actually am."

"Don't worry I won't tell them." Edmund breathed a sigh of relief, however it didn't last for very long. "It's better that they don't know, but I am most surprised that they do not recognise you."

"I was thinking that, but can I ask why it's best that they don't know? Lord Miraz seemed really nice to help me like he did."

"That doesn't matter," Cornelius said before changing the subject, "So Edmund why are you here?"

"Lord Miraz said that you could help me find my way."

"Of course, let me just get some maps." And with that the Professor left Edmund's side to instead walk around and find the said maps. Edmund suddenly felt better, for he knew that this man wasn't going to say anything about who he was.

But he wandered as to why he needed to be careful. After all Edmund had thought that he could trust Lord Miraz.

The pair then headed back to the room that Edmund had been given to look at the maps to work out where Edmund's family were.

* * *

><p>Peter and whoever his attacker was were currently continuing their fight, blade clashing against blade. Peter managed to make a successful hit on the face of the person that he was fighting, but that didn't put them out for long and they managed to stop Peter next attack from succedding. Their fighting continued, with Peter still having the upper hand as he managed to knock the sword out of his opponants hands leaving them with nothing to defend themselves with.<p>

Peter swung at the mystery person who managed to duck just in time and leave Peter's blade getting stuck in the tree that had been to the right of the person before they had ducked. The person kicked Peter knocking the high king backwards onto the ground. He then began to try and pull Peter's sword out of the tree that it was stuck in.

The blonde, even though he was on the ground, was quick to make another move as he reached for one of the huge rocks that lay on the ground, grabbing the firm surface before standing himself back up on his two feet. The minotaur from before was watching the fight now, having noticed both Peter and the blonde's attacker.

Peter charged towards the other, rock in hand ready to be used until something stopped him.

"No, stop!" Lucy's voice rang out and both boys stopped what they were trying to do. Peter stopped aiming the rock and lowered his arm to his side. While the other boy stopped trying to pull Peter's sword out of the tree trunk to look at the young Lucy, who had come out from behind the bushes.

Peter, for a moment, looked to be angry with his younger sister for stopping the fight as his opponant pulled out his sword from the tree, but then he looked around, like Lucy and noticed the minotaur's and centaurs that now surrounded them. Some of the Narnians were still alive. Dwarfs and fauns began to surround them as well, all of them moving quickly to get to the situation that was unfolding before them between Peter and the stranger, who wasn't that much of a stranger to them.

Looking around, Peter and Lucy noticed that they all held weapons of some sort and form and most of them had armour. There was even a badger among them, one that Lucy assumed could talk still. There were some wolves and leopards stood amongst them and one centaur who looked as if he was definatly the one in charge. Peter wondered if he decended from someone like General Orieus.

Peter turned to the stranger who held out his sword towards him, but not in a friendly way as the point of it was facing towards Peter. But Peter had listened to the dwarf and he didn't think that this stranger was such a stranger any more.

"Prince Caspain?" He questioned.

"Yes? And who are you?" Caspian asked, while at the same time confirming that he was infact Prince Caspian. The High king didn't get a chance to answer as someone else did for him.

"Peter!" Susan's voice shouted and both boys turned their heads again, this time with Peter looking for Susan and Caspian looking for who the voice belonged too. Susan and the dwarf came running up to Lucy's side, Susan held her bow and arrows in her left hand and the dwarf held a knife in his right. They both came to a halt and looked around in shock at the number of Narnian creatures that still lived.

Caspian hearing the name looked at the blonde before looking down at the Kings sword, that he still held, and the symbol of Aslan that was on the hilt of it. Caspian also noticed the writting that was written on the silver blade. Then he looked at Peter.

"High King Peter."

"I believe you called." Peter replied, noting in the back of his mind that Caspian knew of his title.

"Well, yes, but... I thought you'd be older." Caspian replied.

"Well if you like, we could come back in a few years..." Peter began to turn away from Caspian who was quick to stop him.

"No. No, that's all right. You're just... You're not exactly what I expected." Caspian looked in the direction of Susan, Lucy and the dwarf, his eyes lingering on Susan for a longer amount of time than they did the other two. Susan looked at Peter before showing the small signs of a smile, shifting her weight slightly underneath her, sending a small look in the princes direction.

Peter could imagine Edmund speaking his mind now, saying somehting like _'neither are you' _in reply to Caspian's words. Edmund would also probably watch the minotaurs with slight suspision. As if being able to sense this one of the minotaurs moved it's ears slightly.

"A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes." Said the badger while looking over at Lucy's D.L.F, who just looked slightly bored, like he had heard the badger speak those same words many times before.

"We have anxiously awaited your return, my liege." Spoke a different voice. The voice of a mouse who ran forwards towards Peter, "Our hearts and swords are at your service." Peter smiled while Caspian could only think of how the mouse was switching sides almost as it bowed down to the high king.

Lucy leaned in closer to Susan, "Oh, my gosh, he is so cute." Lucy said in a whispered tone thinking that the mouse wouldn't hear her kind comment. However the little mouse did hear her.

"Who said that?" The mouse asked, spinning around to face her and Susan, sword drawn.

"Sorry." Lucy replied slightly nervously.

"Oh, ur. Your Majesty, with the greatest respect," He bowed here before continuing, "I do believe _'courageous,' 'courteous,' _or _'chivalrous' _might more befit a knight of Narnia." He finished putting his sword away.

"Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade." Peter told the mouse and the mouse thought he knew who Peter was talking about who wasn't included in that catagory of someone. Caspian seemed to get the hint as well as he began to bite his lip before deciding it better to not bite it.

"Yes, indeed. And I have recently put it to good use, securing weapons for your army, sire." The centaur that held up a sword and had many different weapons with it turned it's head to Peter and the mouse.

"Good. Because we're going to need every sword we can get." Peter had turned to face Caspian by the time he finsihed.

"Well, then, you will probably be wanting yours back." Caspian replied, offering the sword out to Peter who took it, not looking overly happy as he did so either. Peter turned and began to walk away, everyone following him. Everyone, but his dear younger brother Edmund, who still remained lost to them all.

"So? What are they like?" Badger asked Trumpkin as they walked along the leaf covered ground.

"Malcontents, complainers, stubborn as mules in the morning." The dwarf told the badger, who was to his left and Nikabrick who was walking on the right side of him.

"So you like them, then." Nikabrick said, not sounding too happy.

"Well enough." The dwarf replied. Lucy, who was walking behind the three smiled. She knew that they were asking about her Susan and Peter, so to hear that the dwarf liked them was very nice indeed, considering the dwarfs previous alliances with the White Witch.

The young queen walked beside Reepicheap with a minotaur, who they all now knew to be called Asterius, behind her. Behind them was two fauns, a centuar and many other Narnians. Susan and Peter walked at the front with Caspian. Lucy looked up and saw that Caspian, Peter and Susan were coming to a slow halt. Lucy saw something up ahead and she ran forward excitedly to see what it was. the youngest Pevensie came to a halt beside her brother, the creatures stopping behind them to look at what the Pevensie's and Caspian were looking at.

Although it didn't look like anything overly special there was something about it that felt familier. The lump of stones were high towering and were covered in trees and most other green coloured plants with a long stretch of green grass in front of it.

The perfect battle field. If they needed it.

As the group came closer, the three Pevensie's could see centaurs walking up to the edge of a higher piece of stone ground before stopping. If they had continued walking then they would have most likely fallen off onto the piece of ground below that was a ramp heading downwards in the the entrance of the stone building. Every centaur had a sword at it's left side and most were wearing some form of armour.

They all came to a halt as the centaurs all draw their swords simultaniously and turned then around, so that the point of the blade was pointing upwards towards the clear blue sky. And then they brought them all towards each other, so that the point of the sword was almost touching and formed a top to a triangle.

The three Pevensie's started to walk forward, making their way through the arch that had been made for them by the centaurs swords, smiling at every single one that they could as they passed. Caspian and all of the other Narnian creatures followed along behind the King and Queens of old, the Telmarine Prince looking almost some what sad as he walked under the arch of swords.

They walked under the arch and down the ramp to the inside of the stone strcuture. Inside fauns carried weapons to different places and little dwarfs and the minotaurs were busy sorting out swords and shields.

Walking behind the Pevensie's and Caspian was Nikabrick, Trumpkin and Trufflehunter and behind them was the dark skinned centaur, who they now knew to be called Glenstorm, who turned right after a faun, while the rest continued to walk straight ahead.

Peter came to a halt, Caspian stopping next to him as the two little dwarfs and the badger walked past them still following the others that had been in front of them. Peter looked around at the work that was currently going on. The clanging of metal continuing in the background.

"It may not be what your used to, but it is defensible." Caspian said as Peter turned to face him.

"Peter." Susan's voice cut through the atmosphere acting as a breaker for all of the tension that was gathered inside the small place. "You may want to see this." Peter began to walk towards Susan, wondering what was so interesting. Caspian followed, although the Telmarine Prince had no clue as to why he was doing so.

Drawings on the wall beside them were lit up by the torches that Peter and Caspian carried as they walked in front of the others.

The lion, made to look it's best like the real thing had two girls painted on it's back as it ran. One looked older, was taller and had longer hair, carried a bow and arrow and wore a dark green and blue coloured cloak and a green dress. The other one was shorter and had shorter hair as well as looking slightly younger, but you could easily see that they had some kind of family resemblence from the painting. The shorter one, who was closer to the lion's head at the front, wore a orange coloured cloak from looking at the picture and a blue coloured dress. Both of the girls had brown hair.

The next picture was painted very well as if it had been painted at the exact moment that the event had happened, but that was unlikely as you couldn't of been in both places at the same time and besides there was one small mistake in it when you looked. It was a painting of four thrones. A tall blonde king stood a one end in a dark blue outfit with a golden coloured cloak. Next to the second throne stood a tall female who wore a silver dress and a dark blue and green coloured cloak. Then next to the third was the smallest girl, her short brown hair only just touching her shoulders. She wore an orange cloak with a sliver dress, like her older sister. To the left of the final throne stood another boy, ths one with black hair, who also wore blue, but with a silver cloak instead. All of them wore a crown of some shape or form.

"It's us." Susan spoke, surprised that the pictures were there after all of this time that they had been absent from the land of Narnia. Peter was still looking at the paintings, almost in some state of shock.

"What is this place?" Lucy asked turning to Caspian, presuming that he would know what the place was. Behind her was the unnoticed painting of a faun in a red scarf holding an umbrella beside a lamp post that had a smal flame burning inside of it. Susan too turned her head towards Caspian to hear his answer.

Caspian just looked at the girls.

"You don't know?" Well if that was Caspian trying to call them stupid them something was going to happen between Peter and Caspian that wouldn't end up being very nice. But Susan and Lucy didn't think that that was the case.

Caspian pulled the torch that he had previously been holding from the holder that he had put it in earlier when the Pevensie's had stopped to look at the paintings on the wall and began to walk of in one dircetion, the three followed behind him wishing that they could be four once again, as they were pictured in the painting.

As they turned the corner Lucy managed to catch a small glimpse of the painting of her beloved friend, Mr Tumnus. How she wished that he wasn't dead.

The four turned a corner and walked down the set of stairs that lead towards nothing but darkness. Caspian seemed to know the place as he turned left and touched the flame of his torch to an empty point of wall that suddenly came a light with a a bright coloured flame. The Pevensie's looked at the flame in slight surprise at how bright it actually was.

The Pevensie's watched as the flame spread around the dark space creatating a big, enough light to illuminate the whole place.

As the flames moved around you could see the walls behind them. Into the stone they had images ingraved. One was of a faun in armour with another faun next to it (one who wasn't wearing armour,) a dwarf and at the very back a griffin. The next one was of a centaur and a faun.

Peter, Susan and Lucy looked on at the stone in awe. The blonde brother switched the the torch from his right hand to his left and Lucy held her mouth open slightly.

The flames continued round until they reached the center of the space. This time they illuminated the image of a lion, but not a fierce lion, but instead a lion with a friendly face. Lucy instantly recognised the llion to be her beloved Aslan.

In front of that image of Aslan stood two stone pillars that were joined by a block at the top that went across from one to the other. Going around in a circle next to those pillars stood two more pillars, but these ones were lower than the other too. Next to them there was a space of nothing on the right and a small wall on the left. Then continuing around on the left was a wall with a small broken pillar in the middle and on the opposite side was the exact same wall except for it being lower and the exact same pillar except it was higher.

In the middle of all of this old stone pillars was on old, cracked in the middle, stone table.

Lucy stepped forward and started walking towards the stone table with Peter and Susan following her lead as she placed her hand on the table's edge. She had recognised the writing that was surrounding it, the crack in the middle and the memory that it brought back.

She turned to Susan. "He must know what he's doing." Susan's eyes travelled from looking down at the table to looking up at the lion. Peter looked at the lion to, swallowing as he watched the flames nearly touch the feet of the lion that they had once fought alongside.

"I think it's up to us now." Peter said loudly pulling Susan and Lucy out of their dream like state. Lucy, Susan and Peter all turned back to the image of Aslan, Lucy's small hand still on the table's edge. And Caspian still stood at the back holding a torch, looking on in a mix of emotions.

A mix of hate, anger and love.

* * *

><p>Professor Cornelius walked from Edmund's room to his own libary carring the maps. A guard walked past him as he walked around the corner. It was then that he noticed that the door to his libary was slightly open and when he had left he had left it shut.<p>

He pushed the door open and walked in looking around as he walked up the small set of stairs and then he saw Lord Miraz stood over by the window flicking through something that was held in his hands.

"You have quite a libary, doctor." The Lord said as he turned to face the professor showing that he was in fact looking at one of the many books that the professor had. How long he had been here the professor didn't know.

"Is there anything particular you seek, my Lord?" Doctor Cornelius asked as he walked furthur into the room. He just hoped that Lord Miraz didn't know who Edmund really was, because if he had figured it out then the poor boy was done for. Cornelius placed the maps back down.

"I think I've already found what I'm looking for..." Cornelius looked up at Lord Miraz who had walked down to the desk "...in one of my soldiers!"

An arrow with red and gold all over it was thrust into a page of a book, a certain page.

Doctor Cornelius took of his small glasses to look closer at the arrow that Lord Miraz had slammed down into the book. The page was a beautiful one that didn't really deserve to be ruined. It was the same book from earlier that had upset King Edmund.

This page had a field , flowers and trees in the background and a lake near the front. Also furthur in the backgrouns was a castle, the beautiful castle of Cair Paravel. In the foreground was four horses. Two white, one bay and a chestnut. Four young people rode on these horses, all of them wearing a crown of some form on their heads. The blonde haired oldest King carries a sword in his hand and the brown haired oldest Queen held a beautiful horn to her lips.

Doctor Cornelius placed his glasses down on the desk next to the book and looked at Lord Miraz as he sat down in the old chair, putting his feet up on the desk.

"What do you know of Queen Susan's horn?" He asked.

Doctor Cornelius took a breath before he spoke, "It was said to be magic."

"Magic?" Lord Miraz questioned.

"The Narnians belived it could summon their Kings and Queens of old." Miraz listened intently, "At least, such was the superstition." Miraz took his feet off of the table and stood up, walking round the desk to stand next to the professor.

"And what does Caspian know of this superstition?" He asked.

"My Lord, you forbade me fro mentioning the old tales."

Miraz chuckled and looked towards the open door, "So I did." Doctor Cornelius looked around at the open door as well and he too noticed the two guards walking in.

"I will say this. If Caspian does know of the Deep Magic, my Lord would have good reason to be nervous."

Edmund was still thinking of locations where they could be. By _'they' _he meant Peter, Susan and Lucy. The young black haired King hadn't seen any place on the map that he thought they would be hiding out at for the time being. Doctor Cornelius had told him about Prince Caspian and how he had spent his life looking for the horn of Queen Susan.

He had found it and given it to Caspian when the Prince had run away, coinsidently around the same time that they had been called to Narnia.

Edmund rose from his chair deciding that it was time that he went and spoke to the professor again. After all he was lonely and he wanted the company of someone who he trusted. The young King made his way out of the door of his bedroom, down the corridor and round the corner towards Doctor Cornelius's libary, but when he saw that the door was open and their were guards stood inside he instantly stepped back, luckily no one managed to see him.

_"I will say this. If Caspian does know of the Deep Magic, my Lord would have good reason to be nervous."_

Edmund didn't understand why Doctor Cornelius would say this, however the fact that Edmund didn't know who the professor was talking too made it worse. When the guards grabbed a hold of him, Edmund moved to stand behind one of the curtains that was in the hall and watched sadly as he was taken away.

Feeling like he had lost his only real friend here, the young King ran back to his room, however if he had stayed there for a few seconds longer he would have seen Lord Miraz exit the room and that Lord Sopespian had been watching from the other end of the corridor with Lord Glozelle.

And both of them had seen what Edmund had seen, however Lord Sopespian had also seen Edmund leave. And unfortuneately for Edmund, the Lord thought that he could see a resemblence between Edmund and the King from the Golden age.

King Edmund the Just.

* * *

><p>Outside a single faun stood guard on one of the stone rocks that made up the place that the Pevensie's had now been told was called Aslan's how. The faun was blonde and had a bow and arrow for defence if it was needed.<p>

He was looking off into the trees and even though it was dull weather behind a thick branch he spotted armour. Two sets of armour. One set was on the horse and the other was on the rider, who realised that he had been spotted and so quickly galloped off into the rest of the trees and back to the Telmarine camp.

"It's only a matter of time. Miraz's men and war machines are on their way that means those same men aren't protecting his castle."

"What do you propose we do, Your Majesty?" Asked Reepicheap, who stood next to a squirrel.

"We need to get ready for it." Peter replied

"To start planning for..." Caspian said at the time, before recieving a glare from Peter causing him to shut up instantly.

"Our only hope is to strike them before they strike us." Peter said looking around at the people and creatures that were gathered.

"That's crazy no one has ever taken that castle." Caspian told everyone. Peter glared at him, the dwarf watched the Prince carefully and the faun that had alerted them stood with his eyes almost to the ground.

"There's always a first time." Peter replied.

"We'll have the element of surprise." The dwarf added, leaning forward to speak to Caspian.

"But we have the advantage here!" Caspian pushed, not willing to let go of what he knew about that castle.

"If we dig in," Susan started stepping forward to where Caspian stood, the prince turned to look at her, "we could probably hold them off indefinitely."

"I, for one, feel safer underground." Trufflehunter said.

"Look. I appreciate what you've done here, but this isn't a fortress. It's a tomb."

"And the Telmarine's could easily starve

"We could collect nuts!" The squirrel said.

"Yes! And throw them at the Telmarines." Reepicheap added. Everyone looked at them silently, "Shut up!" The mouse told the squirrel. Reepicheap turned to Peter, "I think you know where I stand Sire."

Peter looked to Glenstorm. "If I get your troops in, can you handle the guards?" Caspian and Peter looked at the centaur. Glenstorm looked back at Caspian before turning to Peter.

"Or die trying, my liege."

"That's what I'm worried about." Lucy, who was sat on the stone table finally spoke up.

"Sorry?" Peter turned to face his youngest sister in confusion.

"You're all acting like there's only two options. Dying here, or dying there."

"I'm not sure you've really been listening Lu."

"No, you're not listening." Lucy replied getting slightly irritated at Peter's lack of faith, "Or have you forgotten who really defeated the White Witch, Peter?"

"I think we've waited for Aslan long enough." Peter replied getting just as annoyed. If Aslan was planning on helping them why hadn't he and if Aslan planned to help them, why hadn't he brought Edmund back to them. With that Peter turned and left the room where they had all gathered.

But the flames that lit up the image of Aslan still remained.

* * *

><p>Edmund lay on his bed looking up at the ceiling. His sword and shield currently lay on the floor beside his bed. The young King was desperately missing his family at the moment and was strangely finding that he was being reminded of the time when he was held hostage by the White Witch, Jadis, and her dwarf, Ginarrbrick.<p>

But Edmund had no clue as to why he felt that way. Lord Miraz seemed nice, he hadn't really spoken to Lord Glozelle and even though Lord Sopespian kept glaring at him and looking at him in a strange way, he didn't seem to be too bad.

However his mind couldn't help but wonder back to earlier when Doctor Cornelius was arrested by those guards. Edmund hadn't really looked into why though. And as he ran through his mind he couldn't find a reason for it. What reason would anyone have to arrest the old professor, surely he did nothing wrong.

But Edmund strangely and horribly thought that the old professor's arrest was somehow related to him as it had happened just after he had finished helping him and had left the room with the maps in hand.

The black haired Pevensie stood up and left the room heading for the professor's libary. Outside it was growing dark as the night began to settle down over the castle and the guards began to get ready to change oer shifts.

Little did any of them know about the on coming attack that would take place later that night.

As Edmund entered the room he instantly noticed the state of mess that it was in. Books had been scattered everywhere, on the desk, the floor, on the shelves, everywhere that Edmund looked their were books.

The young King made his way over to the professor's desk, noticing that Doctor Cornelius's glasses were still placed on the table and then he looked up and saw a sign.

It seemed strange to believe that Doctor Cornelius's arrest had brought Edmund a sign of good and although it probably wouldn't help him to find location, it did help him to know that they were here and most likely safe as well.

On the desk lay a book, the same book from earlier just open on a different page, but this time it had one of his sisters, Queen Susan's, gold and red colour arrow stuck into it.

The black haired Pevensie brother wrapped his hand and fingers around the arrows main body and pulled it out from the book. Before turning the book around, so that it was facing him. The book waould actually be quite an interesting read for Edmund, that was if he wasn't there when the book was written about him and his siblings.

Their Golden age.

Which wasn't so Golden now.

Edmund was slowly about to turn the page to see what had been written about them from after the day that they had left Narnia, by accident, and what the creatures had thought of them when they weren't there.

What they thought of them for the one thousand and three hundred years that they hadn't been here to help them. When the Telamarines had taken over Narnia and taken the Narnians on land and country away from them.

Not that Edmund knew that he was currently staying in a Telmarine castle with Telmarine Lords, with his siblings and Caspian's enemy.

"Can I help you, Edmund?" The King spun around hoping to see Doctor Cornelius, but he didn't and instead he saw Lord Sopespian walking towards him.

"No I just came to pick up a book that Doctor Cornelius said I could borrow to..." Edmund paused for a moment to think as he grabbed the book that had previously had Susan's beautifully made red and gold tipped arrow stuck in the page that the book was open on only moments before, "...to help me find my way back to where I need to get to."

"Did he?" The Lord Sopespian questioned him and Edmund began to have that strange feeling of uncertinity rush over him once again. He could feel it slowly swallowing him the longer that he remained here.

"Yes, now if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do." Edmund said as he walked out of the room past the Lord ignoring everything and everyone that was around him at that point in time.

What Edmund didn't realise was the one mistake that he had made.

* * *

><p>Next chapter we have the raid on the castle :)<p>

Thanks for reviewing, please review and thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

Here's the next chapter ands thank you for all of the reviews that were on the last chapter, they all made me smile :)

So here it is the raid on the castle.

* * *

><p>Edmund walked through the castle corridors with two guards walking, one in front of him and one behind him, with him. Their footsteps echoed off of the stone tiles and every step that Edmund took forward made him want to go back.<p>

Although he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to the big, nice room that they had given him. It didn't feel like he was in the right place of Narnia, but Edmund found that he couldn't judge the character of any of these people brilliantly.

All he knew was that Lord Miraz seemed to be a very nice Lord.

The big doors opened and the two guards at the door just stood taking no notice of anything. The two guards who had been walking with Edmund stopped and indicated for Edmund to continue on inwards.

Edmund swallowed and began to walk into the room. The guards stood by the door pulled it shut and the black haired Pevensie jumped at the sound and turned to look back at the way he had come, wishing for nothing else then to pull the door of it's hinges and walk out of the room.

"Edmund." Spoke a voice, a voice that the young King recognised easily. Miraz's. Edmund turned to face the Lord, he was sat in a chair at the end of a long, empty table and Edmund feared as to what he had done. But he couldn't even guess as it was only the two of the who were in the room at this moment in time.

"Come, sit down." Edmund did as he was told, his mind having to fight to get his legs to move in the direction that he wisey wanted them to do so. They wanted to go the other way and honestly Edmund wanted to go that way too.

Edmund sat down in the chair that was left of the Lord, the one that he had pointed to, and then looked up to the face of said Lord who was sat at the head of the table. The young King forced his hands under the wooden table, to keep them from the Lord's view. He didn't want to be seen shaking.

The doors opened again and Lord Glozelle and Lord Sopespian walked in. Lord Sopespian sat opposite Edmund and Lord Glozelle sat next to him. Edmund's fear only grew.

That was until food was placed on the table and servants started to pour them out glasses of wine or water, chucking different foods onto a plate and placing them in front of Edmund.

The young King refused to eat, so much as a mouthful of it.

Despite how good the food looked and how much Edmund knew that he had to eat something at somepoint, he found himself with no appitite at all when he was in the face of food.

"Are we not hungry?" Lord Sopespian asked. Edmund looked up at the Lord and said nothing, "It's not poisoned if that is your worry, Edmund."

Lord Miraz and Lord Glozelle looked upbruptly back up at Lord Sopespian. What was he trying to do.

"Why would you say that?" Lord Glozelle asked.

"Why if young Edmund does not eat, because he assumes the food to be poisoned then-" Then Miraz snapped.

"Why would he think it to be poisoned, I believe that we have Edmund's trust." Edmund didn't move, "If I ever here anything like that from you again, I will make sure that you never see another dawn."

Edmund needed an escape.

The young King stood, gaining the Lords attention as easily as a hunting bird kills it's pray.

"Are you alright? Lord Glozelle asked the young boy.

"I just don't feel very well." Edmund replied.

"Get some rest, we can talk tomorrow." Lord Miraz replied. Edmund nodded before leaving the room. As soon as he was out of sight of the guards that stood by the door he broke into a run and ran the rest of the journey back to his room, not stopping once for no one.

A couple of minutes later there was a knock on the door of Edmund's room and the young King of old rose from the bed to answer it. He almost expected it to be Lord Miraz, but to his surprise it wasn't.

Instead stood at the door was Lord Sopespian.

"Can I come in?" The Lord asked and Edmund just couldn't say no, so as not to put himself in more trouble.

"Well Edmund." Edmund Pevensie didn't like where this seemed to be heading. Then Edmund realised his mistake.

The book!

When he had taken it, the book had been open on the page of the Kings and Queens of old and now the same book lay open on that same page on his bed. Lord Sopespian had always been suspicious of Edmund, but the young Pevensie was now sure that the Lord knew exactly who he was and most probably had jumped to conclusion's about why Edmund was here and what he was doing.

"Or should I say King Edmund." Lord Sopespian said as he looked at the book before turning his head back to face Edmund, "The Just. One of the Kings of Old." Edmund answered quickly trying to get himself out of a situation that he knew that he couldn't.

"Just because my name's Edmund dosen't mean that I'm a King."

"No it dosen't does it." Lord Sopespian was changing his mind. Edmund had done it, "But reading that book, your sword and shield almost do give it away." He hadn't done it.

"That still dosen't make me a King." Edmund countered, "I found them on my journey around the woods."

"Edmund, I think that many my believe that you are not a King, maybe even our Lord Miraz, but I..." The Lord paused. Edmund froze. And in the seconds afterwards everything moved to quickly for Edmund to register it for a moment. Suddenly all of the breath was knocked out of him, he felt a solid surface behind him (a wall maybe) and something gripping at his throat. "...am not a fool and most definatly do not believe your lies."

Edmund registered everything now. Lord Sopespian had pushed him up against the wall and held a tight and storng gripping hand to his throat. The young boy only knew that he could barely breath and something in his chest was aching more than just a bruise would.

Lord Sopespian pushed Edmund even furthur back into the wall, however he did release his grip on Edmund's throat.

"Enjoy your last hours." The Lord headed for the door and Edmund almost breathed again, but before the Lord left he turned back to face Edmund and spoke the word that made the younger shiver, "Alive that is."

* * *

><p>The night was dark and the castle was shrouded in mist as a griffin approched. It's wings moving the air and mist away from it as it headed for the sleeping castle. The griffin carried Nikabrick and Trufflehunter. As the griffin landed on the roof point of the tower that they had chosen they all hid out of sight of the guard.<p>

The griffin grabbed the guard when he wasn't looking and the dwarf and badger jumped down. Nikabrick carried a torch which they soon lit and used as a signal beam.

Four more griffins flew in towards the castle. These griffins carried Peter, Susan, Caspian and Trumpkin. Outside of the castle stood Glenstorm and Asterius with all of their troops stood behind them. Seeing the signal they all began to walk closer to the castle.

Another guard walked around by the gate and from a little tile in the ground enmerged Reepicheap and his little army of two mice, all of them carried swords. and they all creeped in to the castle through the holes that were in the gate before running along the stone tiles before looking up and seeing the griffins fly in with their leaders.

The griffin carring Caspian flew ahead. The Prince drew his sword and used it to knock one of the guards off of the tower and to the ground. One guard who carried a crossbow noticed the light that Nikabrick and Trufflehunter held and aimed his arrow at them, but Susan was quicker and shot him in the back before he could shoot at them. Thne other guard noticed this and turned around, but it was too late for the griffin carrying Peter had already placed him on the walkway and Peter had his sword drawn.

The guard stood no chance. The griffin's flew away after placing the four down safely on the walkway.

Another guard carried a torch outside and didn't notice the figure that followed him until it was too late. He turned and drew his sword and put a finger to his mouth in a action of trying to make the solider be quiet. The solider said nothing and was hit behind on the head by one of the dwarfs that had come with them. The mice scaled up the wall and along ropes that lead into the castle.

More specifically the room that would allow them to open the gate.

The three mice crept along the floor of the castle, Reepicheap sniffing before drawing his sword. Then looking around the corner they spotted a ginger coloured cat. Reepicheap smiled before advancing around the corner.

Susan looked over the edge of the tower at Peter who was scaling down the wall on a rope. Caspian was already on the ledge and he carefully knocked on the window that was next to him.

"Professor?" Peter stepped down onto the ledge just as Caspian managed to get the window open using his dagger. Peter and Caspian looked inside before the Prince put a foot forward and began to head inside.

The room was dark and there were books scattered all over the place. Peter followed along behind Caspian looking around the room full of books on them and everything else. Caspian had made his way over to the desk and was picking up a pair of glasses. By now Susan and Trumpkin had also made their way into the room and they too were looking around.

"I have to find him." Caspian mumbled.

"You don't have time." Peter replied, just as quietly, "You need to get the gate open."

"You wouldn't even be here without him." Caspian threw back, his tone getting just a little louder. "And neither would I."

Peter looked to Susan.

"You and I can deal with Miraz." She told him before looking to Caspian.

"And I can still get to the gate in time." Caspian replied before looking to Peter, then back to Susan before running off out of the room having a good idea of where to head. The dungeons.

Trumpkin too left the room after the Prince leaving only King Peter and Queen Susan in the small room.

A Telmarine guard enter the room where the cat slept, but what he found was a cat that was tied in knots. Quite literally. Ropes were over the cats nose and around it's paws. This gave Reepicheap and his mice a very easy exit.

That was if they had chosen to take it.

The guard looked around and Reepicheap drew his sword. The guard hearing the sound turned around to see and him hanging upside down by his tail.

"Yes, I'm a mouse." Reepicheap said taking the words out of the Telmarines mouth before killing him with a single hit. If only he had a piece of cheese for each time someone said _'but your a mouse' _to him, He'd be rich in cheese by now.

Reepicheap jumped to the ground and signalled the other two mice who accopanied him all of them running along the floor to where another guard stood. Knocking him down onto the floor before easily killing him and heading for the door, standing on one another's heads, so that Reepicheap could reach the lock and undo the bolt by turning the key. This opened the door and revealed Trumpkin.

Another guard had entered the room and spotted the dwarf, but he didn't live long enough to do anything about it as Trumpkin already had an arrow drawn and shot him before he had even gotten to draw his sword.

"Ah we were expecting someone, you know, taller." Reepicheap said to the dwarf.

"You're one to talk."

"Is that supposed to be irony?" Reepicheap said as he placed his sword back into it's sheath before heading towards the controls. Trumpkin shutting the door behind him.

Down in the dungeons on the floor lay Caspian's professor. The Prince pulled open the metal door and ran to his professor's side, shaking him slightly as if to wake the older man.

"Five more minutes." He said as the Professor turned to look at him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked dryly as Caspian used the set of keys that he had to undo the shakles that kept him here. "I didn't help you escape just so you could break back in." Caspian pulled him up onto his feet. "You have to get out before Miraz learns you're here."

"He's going to learn soon enough." Caspian said as he held out the glasses to his professor who carefully took them from the young Prince, "We are giving him your cell." Caspian went to run, but he was stopped.

"Don't underestimate Miraz as your father did."

"What are you talking about?" Caspian asked.

"I'm sorry." Caspian's rage built up and he ran off back up the stairs a new route planned in his mind.

Peter and Susan ran through the corridors. Peter's hand on the hilt of his sword and Susan's bow in her hand with an arrow already placed in position ready for if she needed it. The pair were surprised to have not found any interference on the way here.

Miraz turned his head, waking to a sword being placed a his throat. He smiled and chuckled as he found himself starring into the eyes of Caspian.

"Thanks goodness you're safe."

"Get up." Caspian moved back slightly as Miraz got up, but never enough to move the sword to far away from his throat. Miraz pulled the covers back pushing them back onto his sleeping wife who was then sleeping no more.

"Caspian?"

"Stay where you are." Caspian told

"What are you doing?"

"I should think it's obvious, dear. You know, some families might consider this inappropriate behaviour."

"That doesn't seen to have stopped you!"

"But you are not like me, are you?" "It's sad. The first time you've shown any backbone... and it's such a waste." Caspian didn't notice as Lady Prunaprismia reached to a space behind the head of their bed and pulled out a crossbow.

"Put the sword down, Caspian." as she pointed it at him, "I don't want to do this.

"We don't want you to either." Susan said as she ran into the room, arrow pointed at Lady Prunaprismia and Peter had his sword drawn.

"This used to be a private room." Miraz said as he placed his hands on his hips.

"What are you doing you?" Peter asked angrely, "You're supposed to be in the gatehouse!"

"No!" Caspian began to shake, his sword shaking slightly too, "Tonight for once, I want the truth." Caspian pushed Miraz back towards the window, "Did you kill my father?"

"Now we get to it."

"You said your brother died in his sleep." Questioned Lady Prunaprismia.

"That was more or less true." Miraz replied.

"Caspian, this won't make things any better." Susan tried to get some reason into Caspian hoping that it might help the situation.

"We Telmarines would have nothing had we not taken it. Your father knew that as well as anyone."

"How could you?" Said Lady Prunaprismia as she lowered the crossbow slightly.

"For the same reason you will pull that trigger." Caspian pushed the sword into Miraz'a neck, drawing blood, "For our son."

"Stop."

"Stay right there." Susan shouted pointing her arrow directly as to where she wanted it.

"You need to make a choice, dear. Do you want our child to be King? Or do you want him to be like Caspian here?" Miraz walked forwards as he spoke, Caspian's sword digging into his neck still, "Fatherless!"

"No!" Lady Prunaprismia shouted as she fired the arrow from her crossbow, the arrow hitting Caspian's left arm right inbetween his elbow and shoulder, out of pain he dropped the sword and Miraz moved out of the way.

"Caspian!" Peter shouted.

Susan too fired her own arrow it ended up hitting the door that Miraz used as an escape just above the Lord's head. The door shut behind Miraz and Peter went to follow him, but soon found that the door was locked. By this time Susan had moved to stand by Caspian's side as the Prince held his arm and leaned aver a chair.

Nikabrick and Trufflehunter were waiting for their signal, when Nikabrick accidently dropped the torch, the lit piece of wood falling down to the next layer of the tower. At the same time a guard opened the door of that floor and looked out curiously as to what the noise was.

Trufflehunter and Nikabrick made their way down the stairs carefully looking to see if there were any other guards. Halfway down the staircase the pair looked out of a small stone open window space to see the guard picking up the torch. In fear that he might turn around and see them, Nikabrick and Trufflehunter moved to hide behind the side of the window, out of the sight line of the Telmarine guard.

Not even a minute later the warning bells started ringing.

The small dwarf and badger looked at each other in confusion, before looking around them slightly, wondering what could have possibly gone wrong. The guard too looked around, as if trying to find the cause of the problem.

Down by the unopened gate Glenstorm and Asterius stood waiting with their army behind them. Pattertwig, the small squirrel looked up in confusion at the torch which was being waved around by the guard as he looked for any intruders.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The squirrel question the larger centaur and minotaur. No one had an answer to it's simple question.

Nikabrick and Trufflehunter, as the warning bells continued to ring, jumped out of the window and onto the guard, pushing him down to the ground.

"We're under attack!"

"Sound the alarm!" The Telmarine soliders began to grab armour and weapons.

"Men! Grab your bows!"

Many Telmarines shouted orders as it had finally been realised that the oldest King and Queen of Narnia and their own Prince Caspian, not that all of the Telmarines knew that it was Caspian and two of the kings and queens of old, had been noticed by Lord Miraz.

Edmund too was with the soliders. The young King was making sure tht no one could see him. The King took some Telmarine armour and quickly put it on, before grabbing his sword and shield.

The castle was under attack and who by Edmund didn't know, but he had to find out, because something was telling him to do so. Something was drawing him out onto the courtyard that was becoming a battlefield.

Lead by Prince Caspian, the Prince, Susan and Peter ran through the corridors, listing to the ringing of the warning bells and any distant shouting that they happened to hear. Susan stopped suddenly, while Peter and Caspian continuing running.

The Gentle Queen had thought for a minute that she had felt something pulling her in a different direction, but it vanished quickly and Susan instead noticed that Peter seeed to be heading towards the entrance to the castle and not the way that Caspian had said would lead them out of the castle and to what should be, safety.

"Peter!" She called and half questioned her older brother.

"Our troops are just outside! Come on!" He shouted back trying to get them to try and follow him. By them he meant Susan and Caspian, the Prince of who still held his injured arm and had fallen behind slightly, allowing the blonde to overtake and take the lead through the castle corridors.

Peter ran along the castle floors imtil they all made it outside. Peter who was the quickest was in the lead and placed a hand to the hilt of his sword as he ran through the courtyard, before drawing it and shouting out to Nikabrick and Trufflehunter.

"Now, signal the troops!" As Peter spoke two guards ran towards him not that two guards were a real problem for him to deal with.

"We're a bit busy." Nikabrick mumbled to himself as he pushed his knife against the guards sword, who was pushing the smaller dwarf against the towers edge, while Trufflehunter was stood on the small open part of the ledge.

Nikabrick in the end managed to hit the guard in the nose, before the two of them continued their fight of sword on knife.

Peter down on the ground floor of the courtyard was swinging his sword through the two guards bodies with out any real mercy for them at all. Once they had both fallen he contined on his way towards the gate.

In the end, Trufflehunter got involved scratching the Telmarine guards face, blinding him for a moment, a moment long enough for the dwarf to run the thin blade of his knife right through him. As soon as the fight was over, Nikabrick picked up the piece of wood which was now no longer burning.

Peter grabbed the wheel that would open the gate and began turning it. Susan and Caspian running up behind him, Susan's bow still held tightly in her hand.

"Peter! It's too late." Caspian drew his sword and Susan looked around at the aproching guards, some of who were carrying torches, "We have to call it off while we can."

"No, I can still do this!"Peter told them firmly, "Help me!" Susan and Caspian looked at each other for the spilt of a second before Caspian placed his sword away and Susan put away her bow. Before both of them ran over to help Peter.

Up in the gate tower, Trumpkin, Reepicheap and the two other mice tried their best, using all of the strength that they possesed, to push the huge wheels around to get the drawbridge open in order to give their army a easy entry.

The drawbridge, as could be expected, did begin to go down and all of the troops got ready to charge, but they knew that they couldn't for they hadn't been given the right signal and for now there was no signal at all.

"Exactly who are you doing this for, Peter?" Susan asked the blonde as she turned the wheel along with Peter and Caspian. Peter just looked at Susan, almost hatefully, but something told him that his younger sister by a year was right.

Who was he doing this for?

Many names came to mind, but none of them fitted except for one, Edmunds. And even that didn't seem to fit right as he had no idead where his younger brohter was.

Guards began to fill the space of the courtyard extremly quickly mutliplying like a disease.

Looking over his shoulder Nikabrick could see this and began to try and get the flint to light even quicker.

"Come on!" Trufflehunter mumbled as Nickbrick still continued to try and get the flints to light.

After a few more attempts surprisingly they did light and Trufflehunter quickly handed Nikabrick the stick of wood and once it was lit, Trufflehunter handed it to Nikabrick who began to signal the awaiting troops.

Glenstorm, with his sword in his right hand, reared up and with all of his voice strength shouted out a very clear and strong, "Charge!" As soon as the centuar's feet hit the floor once again the whole ary charged forward at full spead, dashing along the ground as they ran towards the Telmarine castle.

Glenstorm's shouting echoing into the night, eventually fading, being smothered by the noise of the army's charge.

Peter, Susan and Caspian were still busy turning the wheel to get the gate open. When once again they looked around to see even more Telmarine soliders arriving at the scene.

"We're under attack!" Seemed to be their common shout. Either that or it was the only three words that they knew in the face of danger.

The two guards that stood on the other side of the drawbridge watched as it continued it's journey down, deciding their was nothing they could do to stop it, they turned around drew their swords and began listening, watching and waiting as the Narnian army continued their charge along the stone bridge.

And even though they were only extremly far in the distance you could easily here their shouts of "Attack! Attack!"

The guards could only hope that the metal gate in front of them would remian standing.

Asterius ran ahead of the group, his speed was praised in such a battle situation and plan, his what could be deadly axe gripped in his hand. The drawbridge finally touched the stone bridge, leaving the path to the castle almost clear apart from one simple obstacle.

With one simple slash of concentrated power, the minotaur easily broke the gate, leaving the whole army a simple entrance before he focused on killing the guards, a simple task for one of who possessed such power.

As soon as the guards fell the whole army took to the drawbridge, their force much more than any Telmarine couls have ever excpected.

Lead now by Asterius, who slaughtered every guard that even dared to challenge him, the Narnian's made move to take back their land and with the gate now open they had nothing to stop them.

Asterius let out a cry as he passed through the gate with Glenstorm and the rest of the army hot on his heels or hooves, Peter, Susan and Caspian heard this and turned around knowing now that the time had come.

Letting go of the heavy, wooden, wheel and turning around the High King drew his sword using his right hand and pointed it forward, the High Queen pulled out her bow in her left hand and placedher right back onto one of her beautiful red and gold tipped arrows and the Prince to drew his sword and he too pointed it forwards, holding it firmly in his right hand.

"For Narnia!" Peter shouted as the Narnian's ran into the castle at a full speed charge. As soon as Peter had finished his shout, Susan drew an arrow and the Narnians echoed the High King's shout, even if it was sometimes only with growls.

Edmund heard the words echoing off of the walls and he began to wonder if his siblings were here. But why would they be attacking the castle of a kind Lord, unless Lord Miraz was the exact opposite and Edmund had been playing into his hands.

The Just King of old began running. If his family was here or any Narnian creatures than he had to find them.

Glenstorm was fast, unbeatable as he slayed two Telmarines in one simple swing. More centuars that followed him doing the same as well as the rest of their army. Peter too ran over and joined his army of Narnians, some of who he was sure decended from some old friends of theirs.

Peter too stuck mercilessly striking down solider by solider without pause for thought.

Reepicheap, the small mouse dashed along the floor, his speed not being stopped as he remained a hidden weapon to all of the unwaiting soliders that were stood above him and the other two mice.

Caspian ran ahead towards some of the guards and cut down every one of the who stood in his way.

Susan too made busy work of firering her arrows, each one killing the solider that it hit. After firering one she would draw another, but this time the situation was slightly different and she drew and arrow and using her own hand she forced it into the solider who tired to attack her from the set of stone steps.

Susan pulled the same arrow out and threw it at another Telmarine who was approching her, getting a direct him to the heart.

A faun made his way up to one of the castle's ledges joining some other fauns and some leopards who were up there fighting. The fauns that had accompanied them couldn't be questioned in their bravery.

Edmund climbed up the roof of part of the castle, from there he had a view of the whole courtyard and the Telmarine archers that were getting ready to kill their enemy.

"Archers!" Some Telmarine shouted distracting Susan, who began looking up at the ledge that was once empty and was now filling with Telmarine archers, "Pick a target!" The same voice shouted as all of the archers chose what they thought to be a _'good'_, _'simple' _or _'easy target.'_

"Take aim!"

One of them, unfortunatly for the chosen target or more for themselves, had chosen Peter.

Edmund watched as one of the archers aimed his crossbow at who he could recognise to be Peter without a second of thought. Although Edmund thought that his brother would of come looking around the castle for him it was possible that the blonde Pevensie brother didn't know that his missing sibling was in this castle at all.

But that made no difference to the fact that they were brothers. And Edmund wouldn't let these soliders have the chance at killing his brother.

Edmund swung his whole body over the roof and slid down the tiles, his leg hitting the archer that was aiming for Peter on the back and in shock and from Edmund's force he fell over the edge of the balcany with a loud scream, with Edmund taking the place were he was previously stood.

Peter cut down his opponant and turned at the sound of a loud scream. He had no clue why, but as he looked up at the group of archers he felt like shouting something.

Oh Aslan why weren't things ever simple.

In the end Peter did shout something. His mind was telling him to find his brother, so that's what he tried to do. "Ed!" He shouted as he turned to fight more Telmarines. Peter hadn't noticed his brother. He just didn't have Lucy's keen eye for things like that.

Edmund had heard Peter shout out his name, but the young boy knew that Peter hadn't seen him, so he had no clue as to why he had shouted out like that. The younger of the two Pevensie brothers turned his head to the left and noticed that one of the archers had seen him.

And like dominos, after one falls they all do, after one had noticed him the rest had and they all turned their crossbows and pointed them right at him. Edmund ran along the stone, hoping that his speed was faster than arrows.

He pushed his left side into the door it opened and he fell straight to the floor, but that didn't matter at this moment and point in Narnian time. A few arrows made their way through the open door before, by using his right foot, Edmund managed to push the door shut. The arrows that had been fired just making dents in it, but they didn't go through and for that Edmund was glad.

Lord Miraz walked out from one of the rooms that lead to a wide balcany from which he had view of the whole courtyard which had now become a battlefield of Telmarines and Narnian's.

The High King continued to slash soliders with his sword, that was until he looked up and noticed Miraz watching them from above. He looked to his right, towards a minotaur, who quickly finished his fight as Peter ran off.

Caspain to was busy fighting his share of Telmarine soliders that when he too looked up to see Peter and a minotaur they were already making their way through Telmarines. While Peter held off a small group, the minotuar jumped up onto one of the nearby roof boards and onto the set of stairs making quick work of any who put themselves infront of him.

Miraz, from his place on the middle of the wide balcany, watched the approching Minotaur. Peter, too had made his way onto the stairs by now and was advancing up to join his helper.

The Narnian made a huge leap upwards and hooked his black, fur covered arms over the balcany and there he was hanging from the balcany's edge.

Miraz moved back in shock.

The Narnian made move to throw his axe, however an arrow shot him in the top of his arm and he dropped the axe, luckily it didn't fall onto his High Kings head, but instead a Telmarine. The minotaur had been shot by a crossbow that was weilded by Lord Glozelle, who had arrived just in time to save Lord Miraz. Two more archers had followed him up and they too had their crossbows pointed at the creature.

The minotaur, who was only holding on to the balcany now by one hand, growled as Miraz approched him.

The Lord pushed the minotaur back, who once again growled a bit louder this time, as he lost his grip and fell backwards, down towards the ground. Peter could do nothing, but watch him fall, the minotaur smashing through some stone tiles in a small roof, hitting a ledge and then making a quick decent to the hard stone floor.

Peter swallowed.

His anger raged.

He killed the Telmarine that he was fighting in the fallen minotaurs name, for that minotaur was everything that some of his past kind weren't.

"Get that gate closed." Miraz said as he pointed to the gate. Some soliders moved to do just that.

Edmund, who was now at the top of a very tall tower, ran through a door before turning to push it shut. He thought quickly and used his brand new torch as something to hold the door back.

He turned his attention away from the door and then looked around. He walked over to the edge wall of the tower and looked down, but the only thing that greeted him was stone rocks.

Force pushed at the door and it moved on it's hinges. Edmund turned around and through the small barred window he could see Telmarine soliders. And suddenly Edmund panicked, like he never had done before.

Two more Telmarine soliders broke through the locked door that lead to the gate room, drawing their swords. Trumpkin still remained in the room and was stood over by the window at the sound of the door breaking in he drew an arrow and placed it into his bow.

He shot one solider, but while he did another one ran at him, this one had a shield and a drawn sword and although Trumpkin had an arrow already in place, however he couldn't fire it quickly enough as the guard hit him with his shield, causing the small D.L.F. to fall off of the edge, drop his bow, fall on to a Telmarine and then to the ground of the courtyard, landing on his head and back.

The soliders up in the gate tower, using an axe, began cutting at the chain of a cylinder of gas, which affected very few of the Nanrian's.

Asterius, now one of the only remaining Minotaurs that was in this dark battlefield, looked around and saw something that made the blood in him go slightly chilled.

The wheel that allow them to open the gate was now turning the other way, the metal gate itself shutting. Asterius knew that if it did shut that they would be slaughtered or kept prisisner as a mean of barganing surender.

Young Queen Lucy hadn't been allowed to come with them to the castle and no one knew where Edmund was, so if Peter and Susan were to die, then the poor girl would be all on her own. Especially if no one ever found the Just King again.

Without so much as a second thought the minotaur leader ran forward towards the unnoticed, to everyone else, shutting gate. Asterius stood under the gate and even though it continued shutting down onto him he didn't give up. He let out a gaint growl before halting the gate at where it was at that point in time.

Susan had heard his growl and was now looking around once again for any sight of her older brother, but instead caught sight of Asterius who was being ignored by everyone else.

Peter swallowed again as he had now noticed the action and then he summoned up all of the voice that he could and called out a loud and clear, "Fall back!" Every Narnian heard it and Caspian who had been watching Peter took off at a high speed run.

Knowing exactly what could help them and who he had to get out of here.

The High King made his way back down the stone steps, fighting Telmarine by Telmarine, slaughtering every one as they blocked his way.

"We need to retreat! Now!" He called to the leopard that followed him down the steps, he being one of the few survivors that had dared to climb to the higher regions of the castle.

"Go!" Susan turned around at the sound of Peter's voice, while her older brother, using his sword, pointed to Glenstorm and then looked slightly towards his younger sister out of the corner of his eye, "Get her out of here!" It wasn' something that could be ignored. The High King wanted his sister out of here. He had no clue what had happened to Edmund.

He had already let one sibling down and he didn't intend to let down another.

Glenstorm, being as loyal as he was, with sword still held galloped towards Queen Susan. "Back to the gate! Go!" Peter shouted his orders as he used his sword to point towards the gate.

Susan reached out a hand of her own to grab the offered hand that Glenstorm had outstreched for her to take. She took his hand, and with his help, pulled herself up onto the centaur's back, her bow still held tightly in her left hand. While Glenstorm charged forward, silver sword in his right. She turned to look at Peter before shouting at him.

"Caspian!"

"I'll find him!" Peter shouted back before turning his attentions back to the remaining Narnian's, "Go! Get out! Go! Get out! Retreat!" Simple orders, or at least you would think them to be such.

The gate fell down even further, pushing the minotaur into the ground below. Glenstorm made his charge forward as he lead most of the fleeling Narnian's, cutting down the Telmarines that attemped to stop him from getting thier High Queen out of the way of danger, injury and maybe even death.

Asterius was no fool and he knew well of the old tales of the White Witch, Jadis and the minotaurs that had followed her, escically of General Optim. But this minotaur was nothing like them. With a final fierce growl he pushed the gate upwards, so that not only was he standing straight, but his arms were locked straight up as well. Pushing the gate high enough up to allow Glenstorm to get Susan out of the castle.

"Follow me!" Glenstorm shouted and all of the Narnian's did.

However in the moment that Susan had passed through the gate, she had looked at the Asterius and in him for a minute she had seen something of General Optim. His battle stratergy, speed, strength. But she had also seen something else in him, something that she had seen in very few minotaurs, even when she had ruled as High Queen.

She had seen bravery, courage, strong will (the strongest that she had ever seen)and more important than all of that, love.

Asterius was just a different type of minotaur. He stood above all of the others and that was certain. And in the Gentle Queens heart he would always hold a place there, dead or alive.

Edmund, although very high up, heard his brothers cry for retreat and began to panic even more and then thr door was pushed open by two Telmarine soliders, both of whom draw their swords at the sight of Edmund. The young King was still pushed against the end of the tower wall.

He was no fool. And sadly Edmund knew that he was trapped.

Edmund could go back no furthur. And then from the door emerged the one and only... Peter! No, just poor Edmund's luck, but it was not his older brother it was actually Lord Sopespian.

"Dear King Edmund, don't be a fool, if you jump back you will die." The Lord smiled. "Is that what you want?"

"Better than being trapped." Edmund replied, edging back desperatly, as much as he could.

"What about your brother and sisters," Edmund froze, "Yes your dear King Peter and Queen Susan are down there retreating right now, I don't know about Queen Lucy, but why don't you find out."

What in the world of Narnian was he surgesting.

"Live a little longer, Edmund..." The King dropped his arms to his side, the guards placed their swords away and grabbed a hold of him. The Lord smiled and Edmund wanted nothing more than for Peter, or himself, to run the Lord through.

"...and die at my hand." The Lord replied evily as the guards, lead by him, went through the castle halls.

Edmund had surrendered.

Two massive castle doors were pushed open and from them emerged Caspain, in tow his professor. The two rode horses and Caspian was leading a third. The Prince and professor halted their horses to look up at Lord Miraz and Lord Glozelle, who had his hand held in waiting to give an order.

Almost on sight of spotting Caspian, Miraz had made a decision.

"Give the order."

Caspian turned his head to look at Peter before he kicked on his horse, Doctor Cornelius doing the same.

"My men are still down there." Lord Glozelle replied, his hand not having moved to give any form of order yet.

"Draw back! Get out! Retreat!" Peter was still running around shouting at the Narnian's.

Lord Miraz turned and grabbed the crossbow out of Lord Glozelle's hands and made means to give the order his self.

"Now!" He shouted at the same time, shooting an arrow that hit Asterius in the top of his leg.

Peter jumped up onto the back of the horse that Caspian had rather thoughtly brought out for him.

"Fire!" The Telmarines shouted as they began to shoot numerous arrows at the fleeing Prince, High King and professer.

Asterius, the dear brave friend of Narnia, despite his injury tried to push the gate up higher once again to allow the horses and remining centaurs to flee.

A few seconds after Peter and Caspian had escaped, the injured minotaur felt the gates wait pushing him down and unforetunatly, this time, the metal gate did just that.

It landed on the back of the minotuar leaving a small gap, but that one big enough for anything more than a mouse or a squirrel, like Reepicheap, who managed to slide under, not forgetting to praise the fallen friend for his efforts as he did so.

Peter halted his horse and looked back at his army, many of who had been trapped, were now being hit by the Telmarines arrows for they had no where to run to. Yet even in this situation they proved their faith in Peter.

"Run for your life!"

"Save yourself!"

They all shouted in chorus. Peter turned his head to face Susan, who was still on Glenstorm's back with all those who had managed to escape. Susan and Glenstorm looked down. Peter turned to face the gate once again.

"Peter! The bridge!" Reepicheap called.

The drawbridge was rising. Reepicheap hopped across and Peter kicked his horse on, managing to make the wide leap from rising drawbridge to stone bridge. All of those who escaped took this as a cue to run.

Trapped Narnian's still shouted at them, but not meanly or in a desparete plea for them to turn around and save them, but instead a shout of a different kind.

"Leave us! Go, brothers!"

"In the name of Aslan!" They all shouted as the drawbridge rose up covering the gate. The Telmarines couryard had once been a battlefield that night, but now it was part of a Narnian's army's grave.

As if to try and make a point Lord Sopespian, who was now avoiding Lord Miraz, walked Edmund through the now deadly silent courtyard. Edmund's eyes searched for any signs of his siblings. He found none and was happy that that probably meant that they had escaped.

However being surrounded by the bodies of dead Narnians killed Edmund.

* * *

><p>Lucy sat on a part of the cracked stone table, her head resting against another part and her hands held her cordial, her fingers running over the bottle as she sat in the silence. Then she heard the sound of a horn. A call that she knew from a long time ago when she was a Queen of Narnia at Cair Paravel.<p>

She placed her cordial back into it's pouch that was on her belt before rising from her perch and taking off at a run to the outside of Aslan's how. She ran up the stone ramp, the first thing she noticed as she came into the light from the darkness was a griffin that was flying in the air.

She came to a halt as Peter and the others came into her view. She was hoping that she may even see her missing brother walking among them. But from what she could see, to her disappointment she didn't think that he was with them.

Some centaurs and fauns walked up behind her to join the fauns, dwarfs,centaurs, minotaurs, foxes and bears that were already outside.

Peter held his head lowered slightly, while Caspian was looking ahead, Doctor Cornelius too walked with his head down and Nikabrick and Trufflehunter seemed to be at mixed emotions. Nikabrick had no care, while Trufflehunter held his head and made little movement of it. Some fauns walked behind and they too seemed to be looking down.

Susan walked behind Peter and Caspian next to the professor, her eyes catching Lucy who felt the need to ask her thoughts out loud to the group of returning Narnians, her siblings and Prince Caspian.

"What happened?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the right.

Peter looked up at her, "Ask him." He indicated to Caspian with his head and the two words were said with such malice that Lucy had only ever once heard her brother use before.

Caspian and Peter both held onto the hilts of their swords and Susan had now dropped behind slightly to walk by Reepicheap.

"Peter." Susan said trying to stop a fight from beginning between the pair.

"Me?" Caspian asked, "You could've called it off. There was still time."

"No, there wasn't, thanks to you." Peter stopped walking, "If you kept to the plan, those soldiers might be alive right now." Peter was mainly thinking of the brave Asterius, who had given his life for their escape to be possible.

"If you'd stayed here like I suggested, they defunitely would be!" Caspian's anger rose.

"You called us, remember?" Peter questioned.

"My first mistake."

"No." Peter shook his head, "Your first mistake was thinking you could lead these people." Peter walked away.

"Hey!" Caspian shouted, Peter stopped and turned to face Caspian. "I am not th one who abandoned Narnia."

Susan and Lucy shared a glance, this was going to get bad extremly quickly.

"You invaded Narnia." Peter poinred a finger at the Prince, "You have no more right to lead it than Miraz does." Caspian pushed Peter aside and began walking towards yet the High King continued talking, "You, him, your father..."

Peter took it one step to far.

"Narnia's better off without the lot of you."

Caspian turned and both of them drew their swords, the two swords nearly clashing.

"Stop it!" Susan called, but Peter almost felt as if it was Edmund who was shouting at him, the younger had so much will strength.

Glenstorm lowered an injured Trumpkin to the stone ground, Peter and Caspian lowered their swords and Lucy ran forwards, pulling her cordial out as she ran to the aid of her D.L.F.

She kneeled down beside him and poured a drop into his mouth, Susan knelt beside her sister as Nikabrick glared in Caspian's direction, the Prince of who was walking back to the inside of the How.

Peter watched Lucy sadly before looking to Caspian, who was placing his sword back. Nikabrick followed him and Peter turned his attention back to Trumpkin.

The dwarf suddenely drew in a breath and Susan touched a hand to his head, as she had done in the past when she was a Queen to all of those that Lucy had healed after a battle. Trumpkin and Lucy locked eyes.

"What are you all standing around for?" The words were ice through the already thin air. "Telmarines will be here soon enough." Trumpkin was right, they could easily just follow them back.

Susan and Lucy stood, the younger sister placing her cordial back into it's place.

"Thank you... my dear little friend." Lucy smiled at the dwarf before turning back towards the How.

Lucy, Peter and Susan walking inside with only a few thoughts occuping their minds . All of them concerning Edmund.

It was bad enough, but everything was about to get worse.

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><p>So there we go, I was quite evil and didn't let them meet each other again, so Edmund is on his own for a little longer.<p>

And we all know who comes in next, The White Witch.

Thanks for reviewing, please review and thanks for reading.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry for the long wait in an update, I had to study for a maths and science test and my keyboard broke on my laptop, so I didn't get time to type this, but I hope you can all forgive me with this chapter as we get closer to the end.

Note: The _Italic's _that are in this chapter later are for Edmund.

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><p>Many men slaved away over the building construction of the wooden bridge placing in the final parts of long trees to complete their passage to the other side. To the Narnians.<p>

Back at Miraz's castle the council hall was full of Lords and important people. Two guards stood at the front next to Lord Glozelle with a struggling Edmund, who was attempting to break free of their grip. Lord Miraz entered the room, dressed in a similar outfit to the one that Edmund had worn when he was crowned at Cair Paravel.

As Miraz walked through the room, Edmund was forced to listen to the Lords shout out their allegiance to a tyrant and a murderer.

"Beruna pledges its troops."

"Galma pledges its troops."

"Tashbaan pledges its troops."

"Ettinsmoor pledges its troops."

From being inside Edmund couldn't see the marching troops heading towards the bridge covered in armour.

Miraz knelt down and Lord Sopespian placed a golden crown with different coloured jewels onto his head before stepping back and walking to stand at the side. Lord Glozelle who stood at the side looked over briefly at Edmund before looking back at Miraz.

The newly crowned King stood and faced the people that were stood in the room.

The troops continued their march towards the King and Queens of Old, the rightful King, Prince Caspian and the unsuspecting Narnians.

Miraz turned around, smirking as he caught Edmunds eye, the young King could only glare back. Lord Sopespian watched the King of Old carefully as Miraz walked up a few steps towards what was now his throne.

Edmund had yet another word to add to his list about Lord, or should he say King Miraz. Lord Glozelle and Lord Sopespian were sending glares at each other and although they weren't looking in his direction, Edmund did the same.

The two Lords broke eye contact and then bowed down slightly as Miraz sat upon the Throne of the castle. Edmund could only manage to glare at him, but if he wasn't being held down, the new King would be fighting for his life at this moment in time.

"Long live the King!" Chorus of voices shouted out while Edmund kept his mouth sealed shut. Everyone else in the room was bowing, except for the small black haired King who was still standing straight. If he was going to bow down to anyone then it would be Aslan, either of his sisters, the Prince, Caspian and his brother, Peter.

But it seemed that Miraz wouldn't allow that as he signalled for the guards to push the younger King to his knees which, even with Edmund fighting against them to keep himself up on his feet, they found an easy job and Edmund felt his knees kit down hard on the concrete floor.

"Long live the King!"

King Miraz and Lady Prunaprisma walked out onto the balcony, where below stood a huge mass of people all looking up at their new King and his wife. All of them were shouting the same as the Lords had, while they waved at them.

The Telmarines wooden bridge, made out of Narnia's dear trees stood strong in what was, at the moment, a calm, clear blue sea. On the top of that bridge marched every one of the soldiers who were aiding King Miraz. They all carried shields and swords or weapons of any other sort that were good enough for fighting Narnians.

Their banners were carried near to the front and in between every set of guards that walked across the bridge in sets of hundreds there was a huge catapult and horses, that were also covered in armour and this went on for miles back.

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><p>Caspian stood inside the How looking at the picture of the four Kings and Queens of Old and wondered if the final King of Old was anything like the others. Caspian found that he was liking the silence that had fallen over him at this moment in time.<p>

But it was soon to be broken.

"Are you so glad of that magic horn now, boy?" Nikabrick asked breaking Caspian's thought and causing the Prince to turn his head to face the small dwarf. Caspian continued turning to face him until he was looking at him straight on, "Your Kings and Queens have failed us."

He was right.

"Your army's half dead. And those that aren't will be soon enough." Nikabrick walked closer to Caspian until he was stood at the young Princes side.

"What do you want?" Caspian asked, "Congratulations?" What was the dwarf after an award for stating the obvious?

"You want your Uncle's blood. So do we." Nikabrick replied latching on to Caspian's anger. "You want his throne? We can get it for you." And with that the dwarf walked off. Caspian turned and followed him. The pair entered at the top of the room that contained the stone table.

"You tried one ancient power. It failed. But there is a power greater still. One that kept even Aslan at bay for near a hundred years."

Caspian heard growling and moved his hand to draw his sword and point it in the direction that the low growling was coming from before quickly stepping forward towards the cracked stone table.

"Who's there?" He asked the near silence.

"I am hunger," A low growling voice replied for him, a figure with a long nose and wearing a black hooded cloak appeared form the shadows, "I am thirst. I can fast a hundred years… and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice…"

Another figure approached them from the other side. Caspian was scared and Nikabrick was, smiling?

"…and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me…" Caspian looked to Nikabrick who just nodded as the growling voice continued its speech. "….your enemies!" And with that the figure removed the cloak, to reveal a wolf; Caspian pointed his sword at the creature's throat.

"What you hate, so will we. No one hates better than us." The other removed its hood to reveal another creature, one that Caspian remembered being told of. A hag, if he remembered correctly.

"And you can…" Caspian's anger took over. He had no idea what he was saying, "…Guarantee Miraz's death?"

"And more." The hag bowed slightly and Caspian placed his sword away, feeling that there was no longer a need for it. He looked to Nikabrick, who looked to the hag and nodded.

"Let the circle be drawn."

Using a sharp claw, the wolf drew a perfect circle around Caspian while the hag chanted some words that Caspian didn't recognise, so the young Prince assumed that she was speaking in that of the Narnian tongue.

Nikabrick moved to stand behind the Prince at the stone table, seeming to always want to be behind the Prince's line of sight and Caspian faced towards the image of Aslan. The hag raised an ice tip staff and finished speaking before slamming it into the stone steps. Caspian watched as it lit up, ice suddenly covering the stone that was around it as the tip of the staff glowed a white, blue sort of colour.

The hag walked back to stand closer to the wolf and Nikabrick as the whole archway became frozen solid ice. Caspian looked at it in confusion and when he let out a breath and was quick to notice the small cloud that you only ever get when the temperature is quite literally freezing.

The suddenly a human figure appeared inside the frozen block. See was pale, very pale, wore a completely snow white dress and her hair from what Caspian could see was a similar colour. Her hands hang at her sides as if there was no tension in her body at all and if the ice wasn't there she would just fall backwards.

Then Caspian realised. With his anger gone, even if it was just for a moment to be replaced by his confusion, his brain clicked and he remembered what Doctor Cornelius had told him of the Old Narnia.

Of her.

"Wait." The three creatures behind him were bowing to her and the flames behind the ice only helped to add to her appearance. "This isn't what I wanted." Caspian tried to step out of the drawn circle, but the wolf was quicker and grabbed a hold of him and pulling his hand out, extending it towards the White ice figure.

"One drop of Adam's blood and you free me." Nikabrick smiled and the hag drew a knife and made her way over to Caspian, "Then I am yours, my King."

"No!" Caspian shouted before the hag ran the blade across the palm of his hand, blood instantly running up to the surface. The pale figure kissed her hand before extending hers towards Caspian's, her flesh coming through the ice that held her prisoner.

Caspian looked on in fear at what he was doing. The wolf let go of him and Caspian found himself drifting towards her, his fear being suddenly replaced by something else, something that he couldn't name.

"Stop!" The White Witch looked up, recognising the voice to be that of an enemy.

High King Peter ran in with Trumpkin not to far behind him. Nikabrick turned around as Peter drew his sword and ran forward. The wolf jumped up onto the stone table and the hag ran around the side.

The wolf made a leap for Peter who moved to the side towards the hag, the huge claws completely missing him allowing the growling form to hit the ground. Trumpkin, made his way over to Nikabrick, the other dwarf of who was already predicting the fight between the two of them.

Knife on knife, dwarf vs. dwarf.

Peter's sword clashed against the hag's knife and the stronger King was easily able to land a hit, but then she managed to grab a hold of the hand that held his sword and pull it down towards the stone table, causing Peter to let it go and allow it to drop to the floor with a clang.

_Edmund opened his eyes to see himself standing in the stolen Telmarine armour that he had worn at the raid of the castle when he tried his best to help Narnia the best that he could, without being spotted by Miraz. _

_Like that worked._

_Edmund blinked suddenly aware of his surroundings. He didn't recognise the place as somewhere that he knew, but he did recognise Peter and the form of a hag and two dwarfs who seemed to be against each other. The young King thought that he recognised the chill and ice coloured glow from behind him._

_He was distracted from his thoughts by the sudden notice of a wolf that was in front of him._

_The giant wolf made a leap for Edmund who raised his sword and tried to slash the wolf, however he missed and the furry beast went underneath his arm, slashing its claws across Edmund's ribs from the right side of his boy. The young King, however didn't notice the pain, it was as if he couldn't feel any pain, for he couldn't even feel the cut that the wolfs claws had made. _

_Edmund was tripped up by the wolf and used this as an opportunity to make a small cut on the wolf's leg before he hit the floor, landing on his back. The wolf was injured as well and began limping more on its back left leg._

Nikabrick and Trumpkin's fight had been pretty much decided as Trumpkin was on the floor leaning against some stone and Nikabrick victoriously held a knife above his once friends head.

Lucy grabbed Nikabrick and held a knife to his throat, pulling him away from Trumpkin, who looked up in shock at where the young queen had come from. Nikabrick pulled himself free from her weak grip and quickly made a strong grip onto the small youngest Queens right wrist. He pulled her forward by her right wrist before twisting it behind her back.

Lucy screamed as he forced her arm back unnaturally. Whilst her arm was behind her back, he grabbed her knife and threw it to the floor before doing the same to Lucy, leaving her defenceless.

Peter, who was on the ground, finally managed to force the hag off of him, throwing her across the open space and into a stone pillar. From there she slipped down onto the ground. Peter sat up and looked over at Caspian whose hand was getting ever closer to the White Witches.

_Edmund ran his sword through the wolfs stomach and turned running off to where ever it was that his feet were taking him. For the young King of Old had never set foot in this place, all he knew was that he had to stop her…_

_The wolf got back up and charged after Edmund who jumped off of a stone, turning and running his sword straight through the wolf who fell to the ground with him._

Nikabrick now held a tight grip on his knife as he glared at the young queen, who tried to move backwards, away from him, but there was nowhere for her to go. Nikabrick held the knife above her and Lucy was sure that he was about to run her through when he suddenly froze and fell forward to his knees and then to the ground.

His fall revealed the friendly face of Trumpkin, her D.L.F.

The White Witch extended her hand out further. "Come on! Come." Her enemies were winning.

Peter pushed Caspian out of the way, his now retrieved sword pointed at her ice shielded form, "Get away from him!" Jadis instantly withdrew her hand. Caspian landed on the floor with a groan finally noticing the pain in his bleeding hand. Peter looked at the Witch fiercely, while she just smiled.

_Peter had a small cut that was just above his left eye that was bleeding slightly._

'_Peter, dear, I've missed you.'_

_That voice. He may not know where he was, but that voice was far too familiar. It was her voice. She was trying to tempt Peter, like she had tempted him. Edmund didn't know what to do, but he knew that he had to do something; his siblings were in danger, or well his older brother_

"Peter, dear, I've missed you_._" Peter realised that she was trying to temp him, but he wasn't going to do the same as his younger brother, Edmund and Caspian, was he?

She extended her cold hand out to him. "Come. Just one drop." A shadowed figure ran down the steps behind Peter who found himself loosening the grip on his sword, "You know you can't do this alone."

Peter lowered the sword, she was right, he should take her hand, it will help him, it will help Narnia. But no, it wouldn't, she's evil, why was Peter even questioning this, the answer should be a no.

Suddenly something went straight past Peters head and then the ice that contained Jadis cracked and she pulled her hand back towards her body that was still inside the ice.

_Edmund had no clue as to wear he was going, but he managed to find the back of the giant ice shield and from hearing the way that the conversation between Peter and Jadis was going he instantly ran his sword through the sheet of ice. Then his eyes flew open._

Peter looked on at the ice in slight confusion before noticing something sticking out of the ice. Caspian was now stood beside him and Peter thought that the Prince must have noticed it as well and then without any warning the ice broke. Peter and Caspian shielded their faces from the scattering pieces of ice shards.

Lucy was now stood on her feet and Trumpkin held his arm out across her to stop the Valiant Queen from running forward and making any stupid moves.

Suddenly Peter's head was filled with words. Six horrible words that he didn't want to hear. Spoken by his own younger brother's voice, _'I know. You had it sorted.' _Peter heard them clearly, despite the fact that he was nowhere near Edmund.

Peter swallowed and looked down finally noticing a red and gold tipped arrow on the floor with the shards of ice. Susan. So that explained the object that flew past his head and the reason for the ice cracking.

Peter and Caspian looked deeply at the stone picture of Aslan for a moment before turning to face the entrance to the space and as Peter thought their they saw Susan, stood behind the stone table looking at them, or well looking at Peter. She adverted her eye sight towards Lucy, before looking back at Peter.

Caspian looked at Susan. The Gentle Queen looked at Caspian for barely a second before she turned on her heel and walked away, bow still in held in her hand, her grip on it tightening as she walked away.

The Prince looked to Peter who seemed just as shocked as he was at the events of the last few minutes. The two exchanged no words as Caspian left. Lucy and Trumpkin followed along behind. Peter sighed and sat down on one of the stairs on the stone table.

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><p>Edmund's eyes flew open and he was suddenly once again aware that he was walking or being pushed along by Lord Sopespian. He had no clue as to where that strange dream had come from.<p>

As he was pushed along, he suddenly became aware of a mass amount of pain in his ribs, more on the right side than the left and placed his hands over them to try and take away the pain, but it only increased.

When Edmund looked down and removed his hand he saw that it was covered in blood and so was his clothing. His vision blurred and he couldn't see straight everything flashed and Edmund was no longer sure if he was even standing, walking, awake or dreaming.

He hit the floor he knew that much and then he felt something pull him up, his ribs screaming in pain at the action. He heard talking, but couldn't make the words out clear enough to understand the full conversation.

Something, well someone, picked him up while everyone else continued walking or riding on in front. Edmund managed to make out the face of the person who held him before blacking out completely.

Lord Sopespian pushed the young King along reluctantly. He wanted nothing more than to the kill the boy, observing just how ill-mannered he is and how sneaky he can be.

It was then that the King fell forward on to the floor. Most of the troops stopped behind not being able to see what was going on. King Miraz dismounted from his horse and Lord Glozelle who had been walking along with both his and Lord Sopespian's horses in hand stopped and let them go to eat the grass, so that he could make his way over to the young King.

"What's wrong?" Questioned their King.

"He just fell, your Majesty. I think he's unconscious." Lord Sopespian replied.

"Well do something then." Miraz told him.

"How about we kill him?" Lord Sopespian asked, drawing his sword and making move to kill the young King of Old anyway.

"Wait!" Lord Glozelle shouted, causing the other Lord to stop and Miraz to look at him in question. Lord Glozelle had already thought about what he was going to say next, "He might be useful against the Narnians."

"He won't fight his own kind." Lord Sopespian replied outraged, but he did put his sword back in its place.

"No," King Miraz started as he began to walk back towards his horse, "But they won't fight him." Lord Sopespian walked away as well and grabbed his horse's reins, pulling its head up, mounting and walking off with their new King.

Lord Glozelle asked another guard to lead his horse for him and he carefully bent down and picked up Edmund. He could see clearly that the boy saw his face before his eyes rolled back and he became unconscious. As they continued to walk along the Lord noticed the reason for the King of Old's earlier passing out.

An injury to his ribs, but were he got it from, the Lord had no clue.

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><p>Caspian, now with no armour sat on the top of the How on a ledge looking over at the green grass and the old battle ruins that were in the middle of it. The wind blew lightly and Caspian just stared out at the open space, sat in silence.<p>

His professor, Doctor Cornelius walked out onto the ledge and sat down next to his Prince.

"Why did you never tell me about my father?"

"My mother was a black Dwarf from the Northern Mountains." Doctor Cornelius started, not answering Caspian's question, "I risked my life all these years so that one day… you might be a better King than those before you."

Caspian looked down, "Then I have failed you."

Cornelius looked up at the Prince, "Everything I told you, everything I didn't, it was only because I believe in you." Caspian turned to look his professor in the eye, "You have a chance to become the most noble contradiction in history."

"The Telmarine who saved Narnia." The two sat on that ledge in a happy silence until a figure walked out to join them. She carried armour with her, wore her own and her bow and arrows were carried with her as well.

"Caspian." The Queen spoke gaining Caspian and Cornelius attention.

"Susan." Caspian spoke, but the sound didn't come out of his mouth and he found that he had just mouthed her name, but the Gentle Queen of Narnia had still noticed his action as she nodded.

Doctor Cornelius stood up and bowed to her slightly, but Susan could only shake her head, a simple telling that there was no need for a friend of Narnia to bow to her.

"I'll shall leave you, my Lady." He told her. Susan nodded before replying.

"I see that Trumpkin is looking for some company."

"A most noble friend." He replied before leaving Susan with the young Caspian. The Queen turned her attention to him and walked to sit where Cornelius had once been. She handed the armour to Caspian who took it with a mouthed thanks still not able to find his voice in order to actually speak to the Queen.

And then he found something that he could actually say.

"Sorry."

Susan knew what he was referring to and was quick to answer. "It's alright, I forgive you." She placed a hand onto his arm, "Like I did Edmund."

"I'm sorry about your brother," Susan looked at him confused for a minute. "Lucy mentioned it before we left for the castle. She asked me to keep a look out for him."

"We all miss him." Caspian pulled Susan close into a hug for a minute before they pulled apart and looked out once again at the green grass, however this time there was a major difference.

Trumpkin and Cornelius walked back up onto the ledge and they too noticed it. Susan quickly asked Trumpkin to find Peter and Lucy and get them here quickly. She and Caspian stood up and the joined the professor. The three of them looked out at the quickly changing foreground.

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><p>Peter sat looking at the stone tile with the picture of Aslan. Lucy who had now detached herself from her dear little friend walked over to her older brother and sat down with him. She sighed and placed her arms, crosses over, in her lap. Peter held a knee close to his chest with his hands keeping it above the ground.<p>

"You're lucky, you know." The youngest Pevensie turned to face the oldest.

"What do you mean?" She questioned

"To have seen him." Peter replied, before turning his gaze to the stone image of Aslan answering Lucy's question. "I wish he'd just given me some sort of proof."

"Maybe we're the ones who need to prove ourselves to him." Lucy replied placing a hand on her blonde, older brother's arm. At that moment Trumpkin walked in.

"You'd better come quickly."

The three ran up to the ledge where Caspian and his professor had been talking earlier. Already stood there waiting was Caspian, Cornelius and Susan. Peter and Caspian looked to each other before looking back at the ground. Down there stood a lot of the Narnians, but it was what was visible in the distance that was worrying the Narnian group.

A giant Telmarine army emerged from the trees, marching with their weapons behind them and horses beside them.

Reepicheap and his mouse army appeared on some stones down on the ground to watch for what all of the commotion was.

Lucy looked over at Trumpkin and her sister before back down at the ground and suddenly became even more worried than she already was for her black haired brother's safety. Wherever he was, she was scared that he wasn't safe or even… alive.

Caspian looked to Peter before they too adverted their gaze back down to the grass covered ground.

A white horse walked through the halted army, its rider covered in a golden coloured armour, a shield carried on his arm and sword at his side. The pure white horse halted at the front of the entire army and looked over at the Narnians. Its rider did the same and so did Peter. Only being able to presume that the rider of that horse was Miraz.

The leader of this whole attack.

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><p>Thanks for reading, my next update should be quite soon as I have almost all of the next chapter written up.<p>

Thanks for reading, please review and thanks for reviewing.

P.S. They'll be more on Edmund next chapter and that chapter will also be more of a revealing chapter than the ones before it, but not too much, because I like to keep you all guessing.


	8. Chapter 8

I am so sorry this is late, but I need to finish this story, so I will as well as The Just (I completely forgot about them – sorry!) Here's the next chapter, but since I haven't updated in ages I made it a bit longer and I hope to update again at the weekend.

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><p>Peter had wasted no time in calling his whole army together. He spilt them up into groups, giving Susan the archers, himself those that would be involved in a main charge and Lucy a plan for any that may be injured during the battle or for those that were injured right now, so that they would be able to fight.<p>

Caspian had remained wondering since Peter had given him nothing to do, although he did eventually find his own thing to do and headed down onto the grass lands where the archers were.

There were a few fallen trees on the ground and the Telmarine soldier hid behind them, moving slightly across before standing absolutely still as numerous arrows were fired at it by fauns, satyr's and dwarfs. Susan watched them carefully, bow held in her hand. She didn't think that any of those arrows had connected.

"No," Trufflehunter called over to them all - confirming Susan's thoughts – as he moved the fake Telmarine soldier to look at it from a different angle, "Not a scratch."

"It's alright," Susan called out loudly to the training archers before (in a slightly quieter voice) adding, "Mine wasn't built in a day."

"How long did it take?" A satyr asked Susan

"What's wrong?" Asked the faun that stood next to it.

"It's just a phrase." Susan replied. Just after she had finished speaking an arrow flew past them and hit their fake Telmarine solider on the right side of its chest.

"Hey!" Trufflehunter called out, having not been ready for any of the training creatures to fire again without Susan's command.

"Nice shot," Susan said before turning her head to look at both sides of her at her row of archers, "Which one of you-"

"Look around, Your Majesty," Said a voice from behind them. Although the comment had been directed to Susan, they all turned around to look, "I thought you could use some help."

"Things are well in hand, thank you." Susan replied as Caspian moved to stand next to her - her eyes looking him up and down a few times.

"I didn't mean to suggest otherwise." Caspian told her and it took a moment before Susan replied to that.

"I suppose you could do better."

"Pick a target." He told her as he placed another arrow into his Telmarine crossbow. Susan looked around and quickly picked her target.

"Do you see that pine cone?"

"No problem." Caspian replied before aiming up towards it.

"No," Susan said as she moved to be just behind him, before moving his crossbow from where he was aiming, "That one."

Caspian lowered his crossbow as he looked at it before looking at Susan and back at it, "Are you sure that's not an acorn?" He asked.

"Too far for you?" Susan questioned as Caspian looked at her before determinedly turning back to his target, raising his crossbow and firing at the pine cone. He only missed it by centimetres.

"Not bad." Susan told him as he lowered his crossbow

"Well I was trained by the finest in the Telmarine army."

"Well," Susan started, "If that's the best they've got," She paused while she raised her bow and pointed at her target.

"We might stand a chance after all." Her arrow flew through the air and took down its target swiftly landing on the grass behind the trees, the pine cone stuck on the middle of the arrow after being torn down by it.

The Telmarine soldier who had been watching the group train had never seen archery of that standard before. His horse whinnied as he kicked it into a canter, the chunky armour on both the horse and the soldier clunked as they cantered off.

Trufflehunter turned a head, his fake soldier still held in between his paws. Still holding the thing, he ducked down out of the way as two arrows flew past him.

Susan and Caspian also heard this and looked on at where Susan's arrow had just landed before glancing at each other before reaching for their arrows and firing them in succession of each other's.

Susan fired hers first and Caspian followed shortly after. Both of the arrows flew through the trees and missed the fleeing horse and soldier. Trufflehunter raised his head back up and looked behind him before looking back at Susan and Caspian.

From the looks on their face he could tell that they had missed.

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><p>Edmund blinked his eyes open and before he could even look around he was aware of a form of danger. Something moved to the side of him and he immediately lashed out, sitting up and grabbing a hold of whatever was to his right. There was a voice that he recognised speaking to him before he let go of his grip on them and instead reached for his ribs that ached at the quick movements he had just made.<p>

There was a light grip on his shoulders and Edmund leaned back, breathing in deeply as he tried not to make any noise from the pain, not knowing quite where he was made him cautious not to make any noise that he didn't need to or any unneeded actions.

"Calm down, Edmund, otherwise you will injure yourself further." The voice of Lord Glozelle reached his ears once again as he lent against the Lord while he caught his breath. It dawned on him then, that it must have been the Lord that was with him now that he had attacked.

Edmund lent forward and turned his head over his shoulder to look at the Telmarine Lord. It didn't look like he had injured him. Thinking back Edmund could remember that it was Lord Glozelle who had picked him up earlier when he had passed out (if that even was earlier of course, it could have been yesterday for all that he knew.)

"Are you alright?" The Lord asked and Edmund swallowed slightly before answering.

"Yes, thank you," He paused for half a second, "Can I ask what happened? I remember falling or something and then I remember you picking me up."

"There was an injury to your ribs that caused you to fall unconscious. It was bleeding quite heavily, but I managed to stop it and you should be alright now. It looks better than it did earlier, almost as if you heal quickly."

"Thank you," Edmund replied referring to the first part of the Lord's explanation, "I don't even remember getting it, no one injured me I would remember if they did."

"Are you sure that Lord Sopespian didn't do it?"

"He didn't do it, I'm sure. Although I wouldn't put it past him to though," Edmund paused a minute before he spoke again, "What did you say about healing quickly?"

"See for yourself." Lord Glozelle told him, pointing towards his chest. Edmund looked down at the white bandages and carefully removed them before looking at it. The Lord looked at him as well in confusion.

"Earlier you had three bleeding scratches across your ribs."

"Well they're not there now." Edmund replied, confused unless he had seen a real event. The event with the White Witch what if that was actually real, if she had actually come back and faced Peter, Lucy, Susan and Caspian. Maybe the injury that the wolf had dealt him had healed up so quickly, because of the magic that the beast had possessed and the fact that he wasn't really there as such.

"I don't usually heal this quick, even in Narnia." The King of Old started.

"Well I would have loved to heal that quickly if it was me."

"Can I ask why you helped me?" Edmund questioned the Lord, "Why did you ask me if it was Lord Sopespian that injured me?"

"Lord Sopespian is my cousin as well as Lord Gregoire," Edmund didn't think that he had met the Lord that Glozelle had just mentioned, "They both support Miraz and I don't. Well I say that they support him, but they don't really. I wouldn't be surprised if at the first chance that they get that they kill him and take his throne."

"But I helped you, because I don't follow what Miraz is trying to do. This is the Narnians kingdom. You should have seen what Miraz wanted me to do ine these past few days."

"I didn't see it, but could you tell me?" The Just King asked.

"Well he wanted me to kill Caspian first and then when the Narnians had the raid on the castle he wanted me to give the order even though my men were still down there. In the end he gave it, I wouldn't do it."

"At least you know that you're a better man than he is."

"But in a war what does being the better man do?" Lord Glozelle asked and Edmund knew that sometimes in a war or a fight, didn't always ensure your victory in it.

"Speaking of war have you seen anything of Peter?"

"Your brother, King Peter?" Glozelle asked and Edmund nodded, "I'm afraid not, although Miraz has some soldiers spying on them." Edmund looked slightly annoyed at that, but said nothing. Lord Glozelle handed him a shirt to wear and Edmund put it on before he said anything else

A moment later – when Edmund had actually thought of something to say - King Miraz and Lord Sopespian made their way inside of the tent, while the pair were speaking.

"I was thinking w-"

"What were you thinking, Glozelle?" Sopespian asked as he headed over to were Edmund was now sat.

"I was just thinking." The Lord replied, watching the look that his cousin sent him before the Lord looked over at Edmund. He was probably being paranoid that his cousin would hurt the King of Old with Miraz so near, but even so Glozelle watched him closely.

"How is Edmund?" Miraz asked as he looked at the Just King, but Edmund said nothing since the question hadn't been directed to him.

"He is better," Lord Glozelle paused a moment and Edmund wondered whether he was even going to bother with the address, but a moment later after Miraz's glares he added the simple, "My Lord."

"Strange since he hadn't seemed at all well."

"Well it was just some form of…" Lord Glozelle trailed off. He hadn't actually told anyone what Edmund's passing out had been about and the King had no injury to prove that it had ever been there, so he told a small lie, "Some form of exhaustion I would guess." Edmund gave him a curious look, however he said nothing.

"Well we will see you later than Glozelle." Miraz and Sopespian left the tent and Edmund looked at Glozelle for a moment.

"You didn't want to call him _'My Lord'_ did you?" He asked finally.

"No I didn't," He looked down at his hands, almost like he was trying to decide what he was best to do or not do and Edmund wondered what he was thinking off, "I have to get you out of here." Edmund just watched as he got up and started to move around the tent, while he waited for an explanation.

"Miraz wants to use you to get to the Narnians. I think he believes that they won't fight him if he has you."

"They won't. Peter wouldn't let them."

"I thought that. But I had to suggest that you would be useful against the Narnians or Sopespian would have killed you, but I didn't think Miraz would think in that way."

"It's alright, we just have to make sure that Peter doesn't hear from Miraz that you have me here."

"That is why you need to leave." Lord Glozelle carefully took a hold of Edmund's arm and helped him up to make sure that he was steady on his feet. Looking over their shoulders almost all the time Lord Glozelle made sure that Edmund left the tent without being noticed. After Edmund was gone he moved away to go and find Miraz and Lord Sopespian in the hope that he could keep them talking.

* * *

><p>Lucy sat on the ledge watching over everything that was going on below her. She could see – vaguely – where the Telmarines had set up their camp and watched it carefully. She looked for Edmund, however she never saw him. She could see Susan trying to train the archers and not having too much luck at doing so. Lucy saw Caspian head over there and she smiled slightly, but that didn't eliminate her other conflicting feelings.<p>

She could also see a few of those that Peter was working with every once in a while appear from inside of the How. Glenstorm appeared a few times and she thought of the centaurs that she had known in the Golden Age. A small touch was placed on her shoulder and she turned around to see Trumpkin stood behind her.

He sat down next to her, his small legs hanging over the edge slightly.

"Are you alright Your Majesty?" He asked.

"I would be better if I knew where Edmund was," She replied, "I mean what if when this is all over we still haven't found him?"

"It would be easier to find him once this is over."

"But what if Peter, Susan and I get whisked off home again without him, what would we do? Narnian time moves quicker than ours and if we returned again, Edmund could have died by then."

"Don't think like that, Your Majesty, I'm sure that you can find him." Trumpkin replied and she looked back out onto the field, noticing that Susan and Caspian had left, but that the archers were still practising.

"Aslan would be able to."

"Yeah well Aslan isn't here."

"So we have to find him then." She replied as she stood up and walked off back into the How.

* * *

><p>Edmund crept behind the trees as quietly as he could. He was almost out, he just had one selection of tents left to go and then he knew exactly where he would be headed since the Telmarines had practically brought him to his brother and sisters.<p>

One of the tents though belonged to Lord Sopespian who – as Edmund passed him – reached out and grabbed the thin King around the waist pulling him back onto the grounds of the Telmarine camp. He shouted out in pain as his arm was pulled behind his back.

Lord Glozelle looked up when he heard the shout and Miraz rose from his chair. The pair (followed by Lord Gregoire) headed outside to see Lord Sopespian dragging Edmund along. He was dragging the boy by the waist and had Edmund's arm pulled behind his back.

Miraz drew his sword, "What's going on Sopespian?"

"I caught him trying to escape, My Lord."

"Release him." Miraz spoke as he lowered his sword down to his side. The Lord did nothing for a moment before releasing the King with a small push in Miraz's direction. Edmund had no balance on his feet as he hadn't expected to be pushed when Miraz had said _'let go.'_

Glozelle moved quickly and caught Edmund before he hit the ground and held the young King up before looking over at his cousin.

"Next time you bring the matter to me first a-" Miraz was cut of midsentence by one of the Telmarine guards telling him that they had an update on the Narnians. Miraz left to return to his tent in order to hear it and Glozelle glared at Sopespian. Gregoire just watched from behind not really sure what to say, so in the end he too walked away.

"Watch him closer next time will you." Sopespian told him before walking off to join Miraz. Glozelle waited a moment before moving towards his tent with Edmund in tow. They entered the tent and he pointed for Edmund to sit on the makeshift bed.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I thought that I could get you out of here."

"It's alright you tried and…" Edmund trailed off and looked up at the Lord in what looked to be a look of shock, "Did you just call me Your Majesty?"

"Yes My Lord."

"But you do know that you are going against your King?"

"Like I said earlier, I don't follow him," Edmund stared at the Lord when the silence fell for a moment, "Did he hurt you, he must have the way he was dragging you."

"Just my shoulder, I think it's alright, probably just dislocated. I've had worse."

"How much worse could something get?" Lord Glozelle asked as he sat down next to Edmund to look at his shoulder.

"I almost died before I had even become a King of Narnia at the White Witches hand. She stabbed me and-" Edmund stopped speaking and replaced that with a small cry of pain as the Lord relocated his left shoulder.

"Sorry Your Majesty."

"It's alright," Edmund replied as he sat back up straight and breathed in, "Also until this is over you may want to pretend that you to, General, are on Miraz's side and not mine."

"Of course."

"I'm going to help Peter, but I will need something in order to do that."

"Tell me, I'll find it." Edmund began to tell the Lord of what he would need and a way to get it and the Lord changed a few of the things that he said to work to a possible advantage.

"They were interrupted by the entrance of a Telmarine soldier telling them that Edmund was needed to read a scroll from Peter. Once the soldier had left, the pair stood up and continued the end of their conversation.

"What do you think your brother has said?"

"He's most probably going to challenge Miraz to something to try and avoid having to fight against his army with his Narnian one. I would hazard a guess though that whatever it is Peter has challenged him to, may actually buy us some time."

* * *

><p>Peter looked at Susan and Caspian as they told him what they had seen. Peter sighed and paced around the broken stone table. Susan sat down on the table and placed her bow down on it with a small sigh. Caspian watched carefully as Peter sat down next to her.<p>

"We'll think of something."

"Yes, but how quickly Peter? The Telmarines are watching our every move. They saw me training our archers and we have already seen the size of their army, it's so much bigger than what we have."

"Like Oreius once said, _'Numbers do not win a battle.'_"

"No, but they help." Susan replied.

"That's exactly what I said." Peter told her and Caspian saw that the small conversation worth two or three lines had just made Susan smile slightly.

"But Susan's right. They have a bigger army and Miraz is a dangerous man," The oldest Pevensie brother and sister looked at him, "You need to think of a plan quickly."

"I'll think of something." Peter replied and Caspian turned and left the How in such of Doctor Cornelius.

"What are we going to do Peter?" Susan asked, "We can't even find Edmund."

"I'll find him, I promise," The High King paused, "Now about the upcoming fight with the Telmarines. We could do with Edmund here really, he would think of something. But let's think we can-" Peter was cut off by someone else speaking over him.

"We need to find Aslan." Lucy's voice entered the conversation. Susan looked at her younger sister and Peter wondered how long Lucy had been there. Susan voiced that thought for him though.

"How much did you hear Lucy?"

"Enough to know that we need Aslan. Not only can he help us defeat the Telmarines, but he could probably find Edmund. After all he did before." Susan remembered back to how Aslan had found Edmund before and freed him from the White Witch and Peter seemed to be pondering this too. A moment later Susan took a deep breath and looked to Peter.

"Lucy's right, we need to find Aslan." Peter looked at his two sisters and then at the picture of Aslan.

"Well then, my sisters, would you help me plan a battle strategy around your absence?" Lucy smiled and dashed over to sit beside Susan on the stone table as they started talking.

* * *

><p>"Cakes and kettledrums. That's your next big plan? Sending a little girl into the darkest parts of the forest? Alone!" Trumpkin asked the High King as the small council that they had.<p>

"It's our only chance." Peter fought back.

"And she won't be alone." Susan added. Trumpkin walked over to Lucy and looked her in the eye.

"Haven't enough of us died already?" He was referring to Nikabrick, his old friend. Former, old friend.

"Nikabrick was my friend too. But he lost hope. Queen Lucy hasn't. And neither have I." Trufflehunter spoke gaining the attention and gazes of everyone else.

Reepicheap then drew his sword gaining the shifting attention, "For Aslan."

"For Aslan!" The bear spoke.

"Then I'm going with you." Trumpkin put forward.

"No. We need you here." Lucy said placing a hand on Lucy's shoulder.

"We have to hold them off until Lucy and Susan get back." Peter told the small council.

"If I may…" Caspian started, wanting to put forward and idea to try and redeem himself. He looked to is professor before standing, "Miraz may be a tyrant and a murderer… but as King he is subject to the traditions… and expectations of is people." Silence fell among them all.

"There is one in particular that may buy us some time." More silence ensured among the group as Caspian explained before claiming that he should be the one to do so, but Peter claimed that it should be him.

The blonde High King knew that if Edmund had been here that he would be physically restraining him from offering to be the one to fight. After all of the decisions had been made Peter wrote out a scroll with some conditions written on it and signed it. He handed it to Glenstorm and gave him some instructions.

They sent Glenstorm and the giant, Wimbleweather to deliver the message and Peter asked the two Narnians to keep an eye out for Edmund, in case he was anywhere near and the two promised their High King that they would, however small the chances seemed that they would find him.

Glenstorm carried the small stem of plant and the scroll that Peter had written and Giant Wimbleweather carried his mallet, in case he would need it. He was actually looking quite forward to clumping a few Telmarines on the head and if Glenstorm was honest then so did he.

* * *

><p>"Perhaps they intend to surrender." Lord Sopespian spoke as King Miraz looked through a telescope at the approaching Wimbleweather and Glenstorm, better known as giant and centaur to them.<p>

"No." King Miraz said as he handed Lord Sopespian back the telescope, "They are much too noble for that."

When the pair of Narnians arrived Lord Sopespian took the scroll from them and showed the two where they could wait for the meantime. The Lord took the scroll and called the council. After looking over it for a while, Miraz told Lord Sopespian to get Lord Glozelle and the young Narnian King, since he wasn't able to read the old Narnian hand writing.

Lord Glozelle entered the tent a moment later with Edmund who held a regal pose when they walked in and you could see (even though he was wearing nothing really kingly) that he was one. The Lord stepped back a bit, but Edmund noticed that he was still only a couple paces back – within an arm's reach of him.

The scroll was handed to him and he read it aloud to them all, as no one else could read High King Peter's handwriting. As Edmund read it Lord Glozelle shifted his eyes between Miraz and Edmund.

"I, Peter, by the gift of Aslan, by election and by conquest, High King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel and emperor of the Lone Islands, in order to prevent the abominable effusion of blood, do hereby challenge the usurper Miraz to single combat upon the field of battle. The fight shall be to the death. The reward shall be total surrender."

"Tell me, Prince Edmund…"

"King." Edmund intercepted.

"Pardon me?" Miraz asked.

"It's King Edmund, actually. Just King, though. Peter's the High King." Seeing their confusion, Edmund spoke again, "I know, it's confusing."

"Why would we risk such a proposal when our armies could wipe you out by nightfall?" Miraz asked. Edmund wasn't quite sure how Miraz would expect him to know why Peter had written what he had, because he hadn't been there when he had, so Edmund improvised based on what he had seen from the Narnian raid on the castle.

"Haven't you already underestimated their numbers? I mean, only a week ago Narnians were extinct."

"And so you will be again." Miraz answered.

"Well then you should have little to fear." Edmund replied, desperate to get the King to fight his brother, hoping that Peter would be able to defeat him. Miraz laughed.

"This is not a question of bravery." That made Edmund smile as he thought of a new thing to say.

"So you're bravely refusing to fight a swordsman half your age?" Miraz looked on at him speechlessly and his whole council looked at him before he leaned forward with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"I didn't say I refused."

"You shall have our support, Your Majesty. Whatever your decision." Lord Gregoire told him.

"Sire," Lord Sopespian started, "Our military advance alone provides the perfect excuse to avoid what might otherwise be…" The Lord was forced to trail off as Miraz rose – angrily – from his chair, grabbing his sword from off the map that was on the table at the same time.

"I'm not avoiding anything!" Edmund raised his gaze from looking at Lord Sopespian to raise it over to look at Miraz, his face remaining completely blank.

"I was merely pointing out that my Lord is well within his rights to refuse." Lord Sopespian spoke gesturing with his hand and looking over at his cousin.

"His Majesty would never refuse," Lord Glozelle spoke. Lord Sopespian looked over Miraz, although Edmund thought that he looked slightly disappointed, "He relishes the chance to show the people the courage of their new King." Edmund was looking at the Lord as he also tried to convince Miraz to take Peter's challenge. The Just King of Old turned back to face Miraz when the Lord finished speaking.

The Lord's watched Miraz carefully as he looked down at the map, his sword still held in his hand. Lord Sopespian was watching the stood King carefully, but with some form of entertainment as well. Miraz turned his eyes to Edmund.

"You," He pointed his sword at the young King and Edmund shifted his weight slightly, "You should hope your brother's sword is sharper than his pen." Edmund smiled slightly as he heard the words of agreement leave Miraz's lips, he also allowed himself to breathe a small sigh of relief.

* * *

><p>"This is not what I meant, this is my fight." Caspian told Peter as they rounded the corner.<p>

"I think we've already tried that," Peter replied before stopping and turning around to face Caspian, "Look if there is ever going to be peace with the Telmarines, you have to be the one who brings it."

The pair were walking again by when Peter had finished speaking.

"How can I if you won't let me?" The Telmarine Prince questioned the High King of Old.

"Not like this," Peter told him as they headed in towards the stone table and the stone picture of Aslan, "If I don't make it then Narnia's future is in your hands." Peter told him as he come to a stop.

If Miraz was to defeat him then Caspian would have to try and sort out the future of Narnia as he wasn't having Susan and Lucy walking into a battle field of danger without him and the High King didn't have Edmund beside him this time to help him.

In their Golden Age, Edmund had walked onto any battlefield with him and had always advised him onto strategy and had kept him calm. Partly Peter had been kept calm by the fact that Edmund was there with him, because he knew that if he was to die, Edmund would take his place and everything else that was his – including his sword and his crown and not to mention his throne.

But now there was no Edmund to do that if he was to die.

Peter could only hope that they would find him and that he could help Caspian if he was to die. But if Edmund too (although he kept praying to Aslan to forbid this,) was dead it would only be the Pevensie sisters and Caspian who remained.

"And what about your own future?" Caspian asked and Peter could guess that he was referring to his future beyond this world.

"I was thinking about a career in medicine." Peter replied before turning around and looking in at his armour that was laid out on the stone table. The very same armour that he had fought the White Witch in. Reepicheap sat on the table beside it and behind the table stood the eldest of the three Bulgy Bears.

Trumpkin turned around to face him as he entered the room with Caspian following behind.

The small dwarf held out Peter's helmet to him and the High King took it off of him with a two handed grip.

"Your Highness." The bear spoke.

"Yes." Peter answered.

"I'm a bear I am."

"And a fine one I'm sure." Peter replied before turning around.

"But begging your pardon, but tradition holds that you pick your Marshal of the Lists.

"He's right," Caspian spoke, "You need to choose your seconds."

"Don't let him. He'll just fall asleep and suck his paws." Trumpkin told Peter, although everyone else heard him as the dwarf had deliberately spoken loud enough for them to.

"Sire my life is forever at your command, but I have thought perhaps I might be centre of this challenge." Reepicheap added. Trumpkin found his amusing and chuckled.

"As you know my good Reepicheap," Peter started, "Many humans are afraid of mice and it really wouldn't be fair for Miraz to have anything in sight that could further dilute his courage."

"Of course, Your Majesty is the mirror of honour," Reepicheap answered, "And that is exactly what I was thinking." Peter smiled slightly, but he was truly in no real mood for smiling. He had to pick three people or Narnians to be his Marshals of the Lists.

He would always have chosen Glenstorm, but he really wanted Edmund to one of them, however he couldn't have Edmund here and it was upsetting him more than he was letting on to anyone.

Peter turned to Caspian, "Caspian. Tell Glenstorm I want him, Giant Wimbleweather and-"

"Please, Your Majesty."

"It is your right," Peter replied looking at the bear, "And my honour, but you must remember not to suck your paws!" The High King turned around to grab his shield.

"Oh, he's doing it right now!" Trumpkin told them.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Peter asked the Bulgy Bear, who dropped his paw to his side.

"Are you sure that you are?" Caspian asked Peter before anyone else could speak. Peter turned around to face the Prince at first he was smiling slightly, but as he thought about it that smile fell and he dropped his head down towards the floor, blinking a few times.

Maybe he wasn't ready.

* * *

><p>Alright I hope this is okay, because I know that I haven't updated this since the 28th January, but I hope that you will still favourite, alert, review and read on and in future I will try to ensure that I don't leave it that long before another update. Thank you for reading and I hope to update again at the weekend.<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

Alright now onto the next chapter, thank you for all of the reviews last time even after I left you hanging for so long.

* * *

><p>Windmane watched the lands in front of her as she waited for her husband, Glenstorm to return.<p>

All of Peter's army were training despite the fact that their leader was nowhere to be seen at this point in time after the announcement of an idea that the High King Peter, High Queen Susan, Queen Lucy, King Caspian and Doctor Cornelius had thought of, although they were in the dark at the minute to what that idea was.

Her son's Ironhoof and Suncloud were amongst those that were training. The female Centaur was still grieving the loss of her son Rainstone, who had never returned from the raid on the castle. The wind blew her curled black hair as she watched everything that was going on beside her, where the army trained.

After watching that for a moment she turned her eyes back to the grass filled foreground and noticed the two returning figures. With a smile and pure relief she headed inside to find Peter.

* * *

><p>Peter still looked towards the floor as he wondered whether he was truly ready or not. Caspian watched him carefully and Trumpkin fiddled with Peter's armour. Reepicheap looked at his High King in waiting and the Bulgy bear started licking his paws again while he waited.<p>

The High King of Old raised his head ever so slightly, "I just wish that-" Peter finally spoke, but he was interrupted by the sound of hooves making their way along the stone floor of Aslan's How. He raised his head even further to look at what was making the sound.

The curled black haired centaur walked up towards them and stopped to stand beside Caspian. All of the eyes looked to her and she focussed her own solely on Peter.

"Your Majesty, Glenstorm and Wimbleweather are on their way back across the grass. They are returning Miraz's choice to you I believe.

"Thank you Windmane." Peter said before slipping out of the main part of the How. Caspian looked over at Trumpkin who followed the High King and Prince Caspian followed the little dwarf out into the day light. A little later Reepicheap jumped off of the cracked stone table and headed out to follow them.

* * *

><p>Susan was once again training her archers and Lucy was doing her best to help while Trufflehunter provided (once again) their fake Telmarine soldier as a target.<p>

Slowly the group of Narnian archers were improving and getting closer to their actual target each and every time, all be it though, slowly. Lucy wasn't quite sure as to what she was really doing to help, however she tried to advise them from what she had seen Susan do with her bow and arrow in the past.

Lucy watched as one of them nearly got Trufflehunter which – even though it wasn't actually their target – was a very near miss of the fake Telmarine and the youngest Pevensie watched as a small smile graced Susan's face: maybe even the first real smile Lucy had seen on her since just after they came to Narnia, before they had realised that Edmund was missing from their usual party of four.

"Archers to the ready," Susan told all of them as they all put a new arrow in position on their bows in rows of quick succession of each other, "Take your aim." Every archer raised their bow and arrows to point at their target.

"Now." Susan said and all of the arrows were fired at their target. This time, two of them nearly connected.

"Whoa." Lucy breathed as she watched the numerous number of arrows fly over to the target.

"You're getting better," Susan said, "I think that we might just stand a chance if we keep on like this."

Footsteps caused Susan and Lucy to look over their shoulders as they saw Peter; Caspian; Trumpkin; Windmane and Reepicheap emerge from inside Aslan's How and look over the land in front of them. The Pevensie sisters followed their gaze and looked in the same direction that their older brother; the Prince; Dwarf; female Centaur and mouse were looking in.

Approaching them was both Giant Wimbleweather and Glenstorm. Many more Narnians gathered to see their arrival and return. Susan handed her bow to one of the assembled archers who took it and then followed as she and Lucy turned and made their way over to where Peter and Caspian stood.

Glenstorm came to a stop in front of Peter and bowed his head slightly before handing him back the scroll that they had written before he had set off with it to see the Telmarines. Giant Wimbleweather came to a halt beside him and sat down on the grass in front of the assembled Narnian group.

"What news, Glenstorm?" Asked Susan as she and Lucy took the final few steps to join them in front of the How. The group around Peter seemed to notice them for the first time and watched as they came to a halt beside them.

The Centaur looked to Peter.

"Please tell on." The High King told him and the Centaur turned his head to face Susan as he started speaking. While he spoke he looked between both of the Queens; Peter; Caspian; Trumpkin; Reepicheap and Doctor Cornelius.

"King Miraz has accepted your challenge, My Liege," Peter nodded his head in both acknowledgement and as a sign for Glenstorm to speak on, "He has agreed to your terms and your conditions and the Telmarines have agreed to it for tomorrow morning."

"Did they state a time?" Caspian asked as the Centaur stopped speaking.

"Yes tomorrow around a half nine start. At that sort of time the sun will only just be picking its way through the woodland trees and should help to provide the perfect form of cover for Susan and Lucy to make their get away from the whole thing to find Aslan."

"Thank you, Glenstorm." Peter told him before looking over at Susan and Lucy who looked back at him with a question from inside of their minds clearly being written onto their faces as they stood there watching Peter and Glenstorm's discussion.

The High King looked to Caspian next, who didn't understand the looks that he was sharing between himself and his sisters, but looked equally as questioning as anyone else would be. Peter looked back to Glenstorm as he asked the question, keeping his eyes locked on the Centaur as he spoke determined to at least look strong in front of his people even if he didn't really feel it.

"Glenstorm, answer me honestly please," Peter breathed in before finishing the final part of his question, "Did you see Edmund anywhere there?"

"No, My Liege, there was no sign of him."

"Well did they mention him or anything like that?"

"No, there was no talk mentioning anything of him either I am afraid, My Liege," Peter lowered his head back down to face the ground, "I'm sorry your Majesty. I kept my eyes and ears vigilant, but still I could not see him."

"I don't doubt that your spoken words are the truth Glenstorm and it is not with you that the fault for this lies." Peter told him without raising his head as he turned around and headed back towards the inside of the How. Caspian thought – although it could have been a trick of the light – that Peter had started to silently cry slightly.

"Peter-" Lucy started, but was interrupted as Peter replied before she had even finished speaking.

"Leave it Lu." He told her as he walked away and back inside of the How and Lucy turned to face Susan with the beginnings of tears in the corners of her eyes.

"But Susan it wasn't-" She stumbled over the next words that left her mouth, "It wasn't- It couldn't have been- He can't have known- It wasn't, it wasn't his-" Susan too cut Lucy off after she had stumbled over so many words, that Susan didn't think they were going to get any more coherent and at this rate were only pointless words..

"I know that as well as you do Lu," She placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder and watched as Peter walked away, "But Peter doesn't think the same. Just give him some time alone, alright." Susan gave her a small fake smile and turned away. Caspian noticed tears in her eyes too.

"But Susan surely you-"

"Come on everyone," Susan called her archers as she wiped her eyes, "Back to training." She took her bow back from the faun and began to walk back over towards were Trumpkin was.

Lucy watched her leave and walked over towards the side of the How to sit on some of the rocks. Windmane looked to her husband, giving him a smile and a nod before heading away. Glenstorm took his two sons and the rest of Peter's army and told them to continue training.

Reepicheap followed them and Trumpkin found his bow and arrow and headed over to where Susan was now training the archers once again.

Doctor Cornelius remained stood with Prince Caspian who was eventually left standing outside the front entrance of Aslan's How completely alone and unsure of what to do and where to go while the Telmarines and their new King Miraz prepared to fight Peter tomorrow morning.

And they had a family that had been broken into separate parts.

* * *

><p>Susan watched the arrows fly towards their target from either side of her and was only shaken out of her stupor when Trumpkin placed a hand onto her arm.<p>

"A word, Your Majesty?"

"Keep practising," She told the group of training archers, "I will return to you in a moment." She and Trumpkin walked aside and the Dwarf looked up at her.

"I'm going to help you and the rest of the archers."

"Thank you," Susan replied, "Is that all my dear friend?" The Dwarf nodded and she began her walk to return to her archers, however her journey was stopped by the voice of Trumpkin calling out from behind her.

"Your brother, Edmund," Trumpkin paused while he thought of how to phrase the next part of his sentence, "Is he as strong as the stories picture him to be?"

"Yes, yes he is," Susan paused, "After the incident with the White Witch he became the great King that has been pictured in the Old Narnian tales."

"Then I don't think you should fear him being defeated by the Telmarines," He was silent for a moment, "As we won't be." Susan looked at him carefully before biting the bottom of her lip for second before then replying.

"Shall we return to their training?" Trumpkin followed her back and their training continued.

* * *

><p>Lucy sat alone on the rocks on the right side of the How as she watched the darkening sky above her. She heard hoofs making their way closer towards her and only looked up when the sound of them stopped.<p>

When she looked up she saw Glenstorm stood beside her, a hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked down at her. Lucy lowered her head back down once she had acknowledged him and watched as her tears hit the grass covered ground.

"May I join you, Your Majesty?"

"Of course you may." She told the Centaur, although she didn't think that he really needed to ask her to sit down beside her. After a moment she heard the clunking of armour as Glenstorm sat down beside her on the grass and looked out at the vast amount of it while she remained looking down.

"You are most brave, Your Highness."

"You really think that?" Lucy asked without looking up.

"I do," Glenstorm replied, "I would so believe in you any day."

"I wouldn't."

"You doubt yourself?"

"Yes and others do to."

"Nonsense. I cannot think of a single Narnian here who wouldn't follow you with pure belief."

"I'm sure that there are some though," Lucy told him, "Sometimes I think that even my own siblings do."

"Whatever makes you think that?"

"Well Susan and Peter haven't exactly believed in me so far and I highly doubt that Edmund ever will," She paused before adding, "If I ever get to see him again that is." Both she and Glenstorm remained silent for a moment before Glenstorm stood up, his armour clunking as he did so. Once he was on his feet he spoke to the young Queen again.

"I would reconsider those beliefs, Your Majesty. Just because I couldn't see or find your brother there at the Telmarine camp, doesn't mean that he is dead," The Centaur turned to leave and walked a few steps before looking over his shoulder at the young Queen of Old, who head was still facing down to look at the grass covered ground, "And it certainly doesn't meant that you can't."

The last added on comment pulled her head right up to look at him, however he was gone before she could say anything else.

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><p>Edmund sat inside the guarded tent thinking and wondering why he hadn't just thought to bring these things that he now needed with him in the first place, although his thinking was that if he had it would have given him away.<p>

It seemed he didn't need the obvious clothing to do that.

When night began to fall he could hear Telmarines moving about before there was silence around the camp as most of the Telmarines slept to be ready for tomorrow when Miraz fought Peter. He could see that the guards were still outside through the material of the tent and eventually found himself tempted to start pacing since he was so bored.

"It's alright, I don't need guards," He heard a voice and sat up to see three pairs of feet outside now instead of the previous two sets that he had seen for most of his time stuck in this tent since General Glozelle had left, "You should both rest for tomorrow, it ensures to be a long day whether our King wins or not."

"But General-" The guard was cut off.

"Please rest, I will be fine overnight."

"General." Two voices said before Edmund could see that the guards were leaving from their posts to leave only one pair of feet. Edmund gave a small smile as the General made his way inside and sat down next to him.

"We will be best to give it a moment for those two to settle down and to ensure that everyone else is asleep and then we'll go."

"Go where?" Edmund asked confused as he hadn't been aware of them going anywhere, especially overnight.

"Wherever it is that you need to go."

"But-"

"You said earlier before we were interrupted by that guard who told us that Peter had sent over a message to Miraz you told me that you wanted to help your brother to win."

"I do."

"You told me that you needed a few things in order to do that, so we are going to go and get them."

"We can't get to Cair Paravel and back in time though."

"Yes we can, if we leave tonight then I can get you back in time. Remember your journey was longer before, because you were both on foot and trying to avoid us I would guess, so those factors would have slowed you down considerably."

"I suppose that they would have."

"Come on then." Carefully the Telmarine General led Edmund through the camp to where his horse was tied up. No one seemed to have noticed that the horse was tacked up and almost everyone seemed to be asleep.

"Miraz, Sopespian and Gregoire are the only ones who have guards outside of their tents, two guards to each of them, which means there are six of them awake in total which means that they shouldn't be too hard to pass by without being noticed." Glozelle whispered to Edmund as he untied his horse.

"And do you have a plan if we are?" Edmund asked in an equally toned down whisper.

"No, but I'm sure I could manage to think of something."

"Like?"

"I don't know."

"Great." Edmund mumbled, but gave a light smile afterwards to show that he hadn't meant it maliciously.

"Oh here," The Telmarine General held out Edmund's old Narnian sword and shield to him - both of which he had used in the Battle of Beruna – and Edmund took them from him with a smile and a thank you, "I got them while Miraz was choosing his marshals of the Lists for his fight with Peter tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, I wonder who Peter chose."

"I'm sure he made some good decisions. Although he probably wanted you there, so that you could be one of them."

"I suppose." Edmund replied slightly sadly. Sensing this from the young King, the Lord decided it about time for them to stop standing around.

"Come on then," Lord Glozelle jumped up onto his horse and extended a hand out for Edmund who took it and pulled himself up to sit behind the General, "Ready?"

"Yeah," Edmund replied, "Let's go." Glozelle kicked his horse on and they walked out of the Telmarine campsite before they spoke again.

"So where am I taking you?" The Lord asked, looking over his shoulder to check that they hadn't been seen by anyone which to his relief they hadn't been.

"To Cair Paravel."

"And the quickest way to get back to there is?"

"Peter always thought that the quickest way was to cross at the River Rush, however I don't think that the crossing is there anymore, so the easiest and quickest way for us to take on horseback would be to go across the Fords of Beruna, where your knew bridge has been built."

"Alright, hold on." Edmund did as he was told and held onto the General who kicked his horse into a canter until they reached the bridge. They hid for a moment until they found out that there were no guards in place before once again setting off at a canter across the bridge and then set off at a gallop once they had crossed it.

The night was silent and undisturbed apart from the beat of their horse's hooves as they galloped towards Cair Paravel, Edmund speaking up sometimes to give directions, although most of the path that they had to follow was relatively straight forward.

"What time would you say it is?" The General asked Edmund as he tied his horse up to and old set of rocks and trees that he found.

Looking up at the position of the moon, Edmund made a guess on the time.

"I would say it's past midnight about half twelve at a guess from looking at the moon." Glozelle nodded his reply and realised that they hadn't been as quick as he thought that they could have been, but not as long as he had thought either.

"Lead the way." He told the King of Old, who then began to lead the General up to Cair Paravel, or what was left of it anyway. Glozelle followed as Edmund lead him through the ruins of the old castle. Having never been here before he looked upon it in awe.

Cair Paravel had been destroyed before his a little before his time as a General of the Telmarine army, quite a bit when he thought about it and the ruined walls of the old Narnian castle and stone work lay on their sides or still in their original place, but very broken down.

The apple trees and other trees that surrounded it looked like they had grown up when the castle has been destroyed and allowed the grass to cover over the ground that would probably have once been marble floors.

As Edmund past one of the apple trees, he pulled one of them off and continued walking along with the apple held in his hands as he made his way towards where their stuff had been kept under the main part of the castle.

"Are you really going to consider eating that?" The General asked as they continued walking along and Edmund eyes the apple up.

"There's nothing wrong with it see," As if to prove that, the King showed him the apple before adding something else to his sentence, "Besides it wasn't like the Telmarines feed me while we were at their camp back there and I didn't eat anything at the castle."

"They didn't give you anything to eat?" Glozelle asked, both curious and angry.

"No they didn't," Edmund replied before taking a bite out of the apple, "It's this way." He pointed and they headed over in that direction. As they made their way over in that direction, Glozelle noticed what looked to have been some kind of chair. He stopped and looked at them curiously and Edmund soon noticed that he had stopped.

"What was there?" The General asked.

"The four thrones," Edmund told him before pointing to the one of the far left that was barely even there anymore, "That was mine, Peter's was next to mine, Susan's was next to his and Lucy's was the one on the far right."

Glozelle looked at the four and realised that Susan's throne was the best survived out of all of them, followed by Peter's, then Lucy's and lastly Edmund's. The floor in front of it was cracked and the stairs in front had been slightly damaged as well, but he could guess what it might have looked like in the past before the Telmarines had destroyed it.

"It looks like it might have been beautiful." He said as the pair of them walked away from the thrones.

"It was and trust me on that, I grew up here and ended up in my twenties and now I'm in my teens again." Edmund told him as he found the hidden door again and made his way down the sets of stairs. The Telmarine Lord followed him down and looked at the underground treasury.

The metal gates at the bottom were already open as well as the lids on the entire set of trunk like things before him. Behind those were four statue figures that he guessed were the Kings and Queens of Old.

Edmund made his way over to one of the trunk like things (Glozelle noticed that his trunk was on the far left still like his throne was and that the rest of them corresponded with the thrones as well.)

It took the King of Old a while as he turned a lot of the contents of the thing out. Glozelle waited patiently while he did so. Eventually he found what he was looking for and handed it to the Lord to hold for him while he put everything back in.

"What is this?" Lord Glozelle asked as Edmund stood back up and shut the lid this time.

"It's my old Narnian armour from the First Battle of Beruna."

"Why did you just say first, was there two?"

"No, but there's about to be." Edmund replied as he took his armour from the Lord.

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><p>It was past dark and midnight itself when everyone else was asleep and Peter (as he had been since Glenstorm had returned) sat on the edge of the broken stone table looking over at the carving of Aslan before looking back at the floor and then his hands, shifting his gaze every so often as he pondered over things in his mind.<p>

He was praying to Aslan to let Edmund be safe while also praying for luck in a victory for himself and the Narnians tomorrow against the Telmarines.

He kept looking down at his right hand – since that was the hand he had grabbed Edmund's with – and pondered over when he had let go or if he had ever had any actual grip on his hand. He remembered gripping onto something, but he knew that he should have actually looked down and checked that he defiantly was.

His armour and his weapons were laid out on the stone table as well, but he tried not to look back at them.

He stayed there all night and had a few hours of disrupted sleep in between, but nothing that was permanent or really enough to give a young King any real energy, but he felt that he already had enough energy to last, especially if the Telmarines knew where Edmund was.

It was about half six in the morning when morning when the others began to stir and wake to get ready for the battle that awaited them all.

When Caspian woke up he saw that Doctor Cornelius was already awake.

"Professor, is something the matter?" He asked as his teacher made his way over to him.

"Do you know where High King Peter is?" He asked and Caspian looked around. When he couldn't see Peter he summed up a guess of the location of the High King.

"Stone table." Caspian stood up and both he and the professor made their way towards the stone table and the main part of Aslan's How. As Caspian had guessed, Peter was sat there, staring at the floor, however he seemed to notice Caspian and Cornelius's arrival.

"Good morning Caspian, Doctor Cornelius. How can I help you both?" Peter greeted and asked, although he was still looking down. Caspian was still slightly confused as he had no clue why his professor had sought out Peter, so early in the morning. He heard hoof beats behind them and assumed that it was Glenstorm at this early time of morning.

"Your Majesty forgive me," Doctor Cornelius started, "But I have information on your brother, King Edmund."

Peter pulled his head up and looked on in complete shock at both Caspian and Doctor Cornelius and had to force himself to remember to breathe as he wondered what news awaited him.

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><p>Okay, so next chapter will see the start of Peter vs Miraz, so I hope to update with that on Saturday and I also hope to update The Just tomorrow as well. Also please check out my pole and let me know which pairings you would like me to write. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

Alright onto chapter ten now, I hope you can forgive for this being a slightly longer wait than I had originally planned and being slightly shorter, but I couldn't spilt it any other way.

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><p>Susan and Lucy had woken to find both their brother Peter and Caspian and his Professor, Doctor Cornelius missing and Susan instantly guessed that the Stone table was a good place for them to check.<p>

So the sisters made their way to where the stone table was and what they heard chilled them to the bone and Susan glared at Caspian even though he wasn't even looking at her.

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><p>Peter looked at the Professor as he waited to hear what he had to say. Eventually Doctor Cornelius spoke.<p>

"I met your brother before the raid on the castle, before Miraz had me arrested." Doctor Cornelius seemed slightly upset with himself as he said this for not saying anything earlier.

"So you've seen Edmund?" Peter asked and the Professor nodded his head to say yes, "Well was he alright? Was he hurt? Was he locked up as well? Did he-" Peter stopped speaking as he noticed Susan and Lucy stood with Glenstorm, Reepicheap and Trumpkin.

His stopping and focussing in that direction caused both Caspian and the Professor to turn around – although Doctor Cornelius had already seen them enter – and Caspian watched as Susan glared at him, but he wasn't sure as to what he had done.

"I'm sorry that I didn't say anything before, but when I saw him he seemed fine and no he wasn't locked up."

After a moment Peter spoke his reply, "Thank you Doctor Cornelius."

"So the Telmarines have him." Trumpkin said as he stepped forward.

"Yes." Doctor Cornelius replied.

"Then we must get him back from them." Lucy added desperately as she took a small step forward only to have Susan place a hand on her shoulder before giving her a look that said to stay out of it.

"My Liege what do you want us to do?" Glenstorm asked, "There was no sign of him at their camp. Do you think that he's still at the castle?"

"If he's not at their camp then Miraz would have had him killed," Caspian inputted and everyone suddenly looked to him, "I know my Uncle and he wouldn't leave Edmund in his castle alone."

"Well maybe he isn't there alone." Susan said, her anger beginning to seethe through her calm and gentle outlook.

"Miraz had all of his army there, Edmund is either with him or not." Caspian replied.

"Well then he's with them isn't he!" Susan shouted as everyone looked to her, "Edmund is my brother and I refuse to believe that he's dead just because we haven't seen for certain that he is at Miraz's camp." The High Queen turned and walked away and Lucy lowered her head to look to the floor with tears blinking in her eyes as Trumpkin came over to join her, placing a small hand on her arm.

Peter who had said nothing for the whole time finally raised his head and the look of anger in his eyes could have killed just from a single look.

"I'll tell you what we are going to do," Everyone looked at him and listened and even Lucy raised her head slightly and Susan reappeared at the very back of the tunnel, "We are going to get ready to fight Miraz, we are to beat the Telmarines and we are going to find Edmund." He paused for a moment before noticing Susan and adding something else.

"And we aren't going to fight each other," Caspian and Lucy too looked around to see Susan stood there, "Because Susan's right. I don't believe Edmund to be dead." As soon as Peter had finished speaking everyone began to move around and Doctor Cornelius apologized to Lucy, Susan and Peter for not saying anything earlier while Caspian waited to get a chance to talk to Susan.

"Would you like me to come with you and Lucy?" He asked when he finally got a chance.

"We'll be alright thanks," Susan told him, "We've always managed in the past to do so."

"I just thought that you may need some help."

"If I needed help then I'd call." Susan told him before walking off to get ready for the upcoming battle.

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><p>Lucy was checking that she had her knife when Susan walked over to her with her chain mail over her red dress and Telmarine armour on top of that with her bow and arrows over her shoulder.<p>

"Ready?" She asked her younger sister. Lucy nodded and grabbed her blue clock and did it up as she and Susan left to find Caspian.

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><p>Caspian was busy adjusting different buckles on Destrier's saddle and bridle while he waited for Susan and Lucy. The few times he had passed Susan he had given her a smile which she hadn't returned and he wondered if he had really messed up.<p>

Peter made his way over to him already wearing all of his armour for his fight against Miraz, while he was busy and Caspian looked at him when he finally noticed.

"I wouldn't worry about Susan," He told him, "She can get protective like that over Lucy and Edmund. She can even mother me at times." Caspian smiled slightly as Peter did before returning to what he had been doing.

"I'm sorry for what I said. It probably wasn't the most practical thing to tell you regarding your brother." Caspian replied.

"No, but I always asked my army to be honest with me in the past," Peter said, "And if I know Edmund then he'll be there with them. He's not very easy to kill." The High King finished before walking away and out of Caspian's sight.

Lucy was next to enter as Peter left and walked over to where Caspian held Destrier ready for her and Susan.

"We'll find him." Lucy told him.

"Edmund?" Caspian questioned.

"No Aslan, but do you think that you could try and find Edmund while Susan and I are gone?" Lucy asked.

"Sure. I will search the battlefield and if I can the Telmarines camp."

"If Peter wins there won't be a battlefield." Lucy said although she was sure that her words would betray her and that the Telmarines would go against their word and promise.

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><p>Edmund had already put his chainmail on as well as the red tunic with the golden lion on the front and his combat boots. He was putting the armour on his shoulders when General Glozelle appeared behind him and started to help him with it.<p>

"If you like it in Narnia why did you leave?" He asked as he moved onto the other shoulder.

"We didn't choose to," Edmund started, "It just seemed to happen. One minute we were chasing a white stag and then we found the lamp post which was one of the first things we saw when we came to Narnia and that lead us back to the wardrobe and we just walked through it and ended up back in the Professor's house."

"Did you ever try to get back?" The General asked as he finished helping Edmund.

"Of course, but it just never seemed to work no matter what we tried. Lucy even ended up knocking on the back of every wardrobe and walking inside of them to see if Narnia was waiting there, however it never seemed to work."

The General said nothing in reply to that, but Edmund just took a deep breath and made his way out of the treasury with the Telmarine General following behind him. The early morning sunlight was bright and Glozelle winced slightly at the brightness of it, but he did notice that the King of Old didn't.

"This is probably the brightest that I have ever seen this land." He told Edmund as he saw the King smile.

"The Radiant southern sun," Edmund said simply before looking at the General, "We should get back. We won't have long to help Peter now."

"Come on then," The pair headed back down onto the beach and over to where they had left Glozelle's horse, "Do you have a plan?" The Lord asked as he offered Edmund a hand to help him up.

"No," Edmund replied, "Do you?"

"I might just have an idea, but it will be dangerous."

"Whenever we're in Narnia it always is." Edmund told him.

"Well that's alright then," The pair smiled before looking ahead of them, "Hold on." And with that they galloped off, away from Cair Paravel with the sun shining from behind them.

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><p>Peter smiled at Lucy on his way out and then grabbed a hold of Susan's arm before she could follow her younger sister into meet Caspian.<p>

"Caspian was only being honest with us Su."

"He didn't have to make his honesty so blunt though Peter." Susan replied.

"No, but didn't we always ask for honesty during our rule of Narnia in the Golden Age?"

"Well yes, but-"

"And wasn't it you who first thought of that."

"Yes, but-" Susan cut herself off and then started speaking again, "I suppose your right maybe I shouldn't have reacted like I did."

"He likes you Su, you can see it."

"I know." Peter hugged his sister and then gave her a smile.

"Be careful and look after Lucy. Protect her."

"I will," Susan told her older brother as they let go of their embrace, "You be careful too."

"I will." They smiled at each other before moving down the tunnel in their different directions.

Susan walked in a moment later having finished her short conversation with Peter and Caspian helped her to get on his trusted horse before helping Lucy to get on behind her.

"Destrier has always served me well. You are in good hands." Caspian said as he looked down and slipped Susan's left foot back into the stirrup.

"Or hooves." Lucy joked as she looked down at Caspian who then looked back up at her with the small hints of a smile.

Destrier whinnied and moved back a step as Caspian checked over her tack to make sure that Susan and Lucy wouldn't slip off while they were making their way to find Aslan. Caspian looked up and said nothing for a minute before simply saying;

"Good luck." He gave Susan a small smile.

"Thanks." Susan replied, looking away from him as Destrier shifted her weight again and Caspian's smile fell off of his face as he looked back down to the floor.

"Look," He grabbed Susan's horn with his left hand from where he had kept it before lifting it up towards Susan, "Maybe it is time you had this back."

Susan looked and the horn and Lucy looked at Susan while Destrier whinnied again and fidgeted already ready to leave.

"Why don't you hold on to it," Susan told him before the small hints of a smile began to appear on her face, "You might need to call me again." This time she did properly smile at him and Caspian looked back at her with the hints of a smile on his own face as Susan kicked Destrier into a short trot before changing that pace to a canter and Lucy held onto her sister to keep her balance.

"You might need to call me again?" Lucy said as they cantered down the fire lit torch tunnel of Aslan's How.

"Oh, shut up." Susan replied as she looked over her shoulder at her sister before looking back straight ahead of her with a smile on her face and Lucy was only glad that Susan and Caspian seemed to be repairing there relationship even if they were going at a slower pace than she would have hoped.

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><p>Glozelle and Edmund had made quick time back to the Telmarine camp and arrived before anyone else had woken up. Glozelle left Edmund in his tent when he left the camp with Miraz and the rest of the Telmarine forces.<p>

Edmund waited like Glozelle had said before running out of the camp and round the back of the bridge that the Telmarines had built knowing a different why around the back of the Telmarine forces to get to his brother without being noticed.

He could only hope that Peter could actually beat Miraz and save them all.

* * *

><p>Peter made his way out into the shining sun, watching as it illuminated his figure as he left the How. Trumpkin walked beside him, holding his sword, Rhindon as they walked up to meet the Telmarines leader.<p>

The High Kings face was set in determination to find his brother as he approached Miraz. His army (most of which was stood up the top small ramp) cheered for him as he passed them and Peter made no move to smile, but just keep his face set in determination.

He still wished that Edmund could be walking beside him right now, but at least he had a small idea now on where to start looking for his younger brother.

The Telmarine army were cheering as well, although they of course weren't cheering for Peter, but for their own leader, King Miraz.

Miraz looked at Peter and the Dwarf as they approached him and kept his eyes on Peter's face which didn't look like someone that you would want to mess with.

Peter blocked out all form of sound as he walked forward and watched Glenstorm nod at him from where he was stood. The centaur turned around to face the Telmarines as Peter drew level with him and the Bulgy Bear – that Peter had finally said yes to – also turned to face them without licking his paws this time.

Miraz seemed to be doing up the final buckles on his gold and black Telmarine armour. His Marshal of the Lists were none other than Lord Glozelle, Lord Sopespian and Lord Gregoire according to what Caspian had told them.

Lord Glozelle held a crossbow and Lord Sopespian held Miraz's sward and Lord Gregoire stood with them holding the Kings shield and his sword.

"If it should appear to be going poorly…" Miraz looked up at Lord Glozelle and nodded. The Telmarine General was looking at the crossbow before looking at Miraz. Glozelle knew what the King was talking about as he had been informed of the plan last night by the King himself.

"Understood, Your Majesty." His gaze lifted to Sopespian as Miraz looked forward and then rose from his chair and taking his shield from Lord Gregoire.

Peter drew his sword and his army cheered once again.

"I hope you won't be too disappointed when I survive." Miraz told Lord Sopespian as he grabbed his helmet from the other Lord's grip and placed it on his head before taking his sword from Lord Gregoire.

He stepped forward onto the field of their battle and Peter did the same. Trumpkin looked over his shoulder at Susan's archers and then back at the battlefield. At this point in time they had no one to give them any form of order with Susan being gone looking for Aslan with Lucy and he being down here as a Marshal of the Lists.

Prince Caspian was meant to be here as Peter's other Marshal of the List, but after Susan and Lucy had left moments ago he had been nowhere to be found.

"There is still time to surrender." Miraz said as he and Peter circled slowly around the area of which they would fight each other in.

"Well, feel free." Peter replied.

"How many more must die for the throne?" Miraz asked and Peter looked at the man carefully as he quickly considered his next words. The sooner he beat Miraz, the sooner he could find out whether Edmund was being held by them or not.

And his next two words brought around the beginning of the fight for Narnia.

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><p>Okay I will try to update again during the week on Thursday. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading and please remember to vote on my poll for the pairings that you would like me to write in my new stories.<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

Okay thank you so much for all of the reviews, favourites and alerts so far. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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><p>"Just one." Peter told him as he lowered the visor of his helmet and jumped on to a rock as Miraz moved forward and brought his great sword, Rhindon, crashing down onto Miraz's shield as the Telmarines King brought his sword up to hit Peter's.<p>

Peter swung his sword forward hitting the other King's shield again before Miraz pushed his shield into Peter's face, knocking the High King's head back.

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><p>Susan kicked Destrier on as they emerged from the tunnel of a small cave. The black Friesian cantered along the woodland tracks with only the sound of her hoof beats as they went along for without the armour her Telmarine tack made no clunking sounds, giving the Queen's a silent advantage.<p>

Lucy held onto her sister and looked over Susan's right shoulder to see where they were going while also keeping her head to the right to avoid it banging into Susan's quiver of arrows and her bow. Still the young Queen feared that the Telmarines would find them even with the setup of their plan getting them away from Aslan's How at a good time.

The path changed to have a lake on the Queen's right hand side. Numerous trees surrounded their track, but none of them moved or spoke to them. On the left hand side of the track the stone wall was built up and the green moss at the top had the sun shine on it through the branches of the trees.

And it was on that path that the Telmarines road, searching for the High Queen and Queen of Narnia. When she heard the whinnie of a horse, Lucy looked over her own shoulder to her left and noticed the group of about six Telmarines that followed them from the track above.

"Ride!" They shouted and Lucy turned back to face her older sister's back.

"They've seen us!" She told her, her tone of voice carrying over the panic that she was feeling.

Susan – now that Lucy had told her this – turned her head to look back and see how many of them there were. When she looked forward again she kicked Destrier on even more and they picked up the pace into a gallop to pull ahead of the soldiers, however Susan knew that even that wouldn't be enough to help them lose the Telmarines now.

The soldiers would follow them until they caught up and then (dependent of course on their orders) they would either kill the pair of them or capture them as hostages, but either way Susan could see no way of them finding Aslan before the soldiers caught up to them.

At least not together anyway.

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><p>Caspian was doing his best to follow the hoof prints that were in the woods tracks as he galloped along on his horse, but it was easy to confuse the different animal's tracks at fast speeds and for a moment he was thankful that not too many Narnians had come this way.<p>

Although that was of course partly, because there were none of them other than the ones in their army.

He kicked his horse on even more when he heard the agonized shouts of soldiers and hoped that he wasn't too late to help Susan and Lucy.

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><p>Susan and Lucy emerged from the bush at the end of the path into an area full of trees and where the ground was consisting of brownish and amber coloured leaves. Destrier whinnied as Susan brought her to a halt in the middle before swinging her right leg over to her left side and letting herself land on the floor of leaves.<p>

"Take the reins." Susan told Lucy as she let go of them and Lucy moved herself further forward into the front of the saddle.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked her sister desperately with worry as well as she noted Susan's movements.

"I'm sorry, Lucy," Lucy looked over at the area from where the Telmarines would approach and then back at Susan, "But it looks as if you'll be going alone after all." Lucy watched as Susan swallowed before moving back and hitting Destrier's hind quarters to get the horse to move forward. Destrier did so with another whinnie and Lucy let the black mare move out of the way at a trot.

Susan watched as the horse moved away from her. She reached a hand up to behind her head as the turned around to face the end of the pathways before grabbing a hold of her bow and a single red and gold tipped arrow and pulling them out of her quiver.

She placed the arrow in her bow and stood in the centre of the area. The sun shone in through the trees and illuminated a few patches of leaves on either side of her, but managed to stay out of her line of sight. It was times like these that she thanked the Southern Sun.

She turned her head to look over in the direction that she had sent Lucy. The youngest Pevensie sibling had finally realised what Susan was doing and managed to bring Destrier to a stop. She looked around at Susan and met her sister's eye for a minute before turning her head to face forward and kicking Destrier forward and away from the area where Susan's battle would take place.

As soon as Lucy was out of her sight, Susan looked forward again and watched for the Telmarines to approach.

After a moment she saw the first Telmarine horse round the corner, its silver plated face armour catching the sun as well as its riders armour and sword as they came towards her. And that one soldier was followed by a second and that one was followed by a third.

Susan raised her bow and held the end of the arrow near to the bottom of her face. She adjusted her hands grip on the front of the bow and watched for the approaching Telmarines from a parallel line straight down her arrow and left arm and passed the end of the bow and string.

She fired the arrow and watched as it quickly moved to find its target. The arrow hit the first soldier on the left side of his chest around the area of his heart and as he fell to the left, his horse kept on going.

Susan grabbed another arrow and fired that one as well, hitting the third soldier in the line who had been riding a black horse.

Her third arrow hit the soldier who had been second in the line as well as the soldier who had been holding a cross bow.

She fired a fourth arrow to hit another soldier who had been riding a black horse and watched as another soldier with a cross bow appeared, coming towards her in a very fast gait on his chestnut horse.

One of the horses reared as the soldier fell from its back to join the bodies of his other army members. The horse all galloped past her after losing their riders, luckily with none of them actually hitting her as she reached to grab a fifth arrow.

A soldier approached her with a sword on another black horse and Susan grabbed her arrow, pulling it out of her quiver and over her head while ducking down at the same time allowing the Telmarines swinging sword to go straight over the top of her head.

And then she remembered the sixth soldier who had approached her before (the one that she had intended to aim for next) appear from her left and as she rose back up to her feet, he rammed his horse straight into her and Susan didn't really feel the impact of it until she felt herself hit the floor, her Narnian crafted quiver digging into the bottom of her back as she did.

She looked over and watched the solider as he turned his horse around to bring it in front of her before she could even comprehend getting up and back onto her feet. Her bow lay at her side, still gripped lightly in her left hand.

The Gentle Queen shuffled back as far as she could get until she ended up being backed up against a wooden log as the Telmarine soldier pointed his silver sword at her.

Suddenly another voice's shout entered the picture and a quick moving blur moved passed her, but Susan could work out that it was a bay coloured horse. The clanging of swords was heard, but it was heard only once before the soldier had a Telmarine blade slice through his stomach and he fell off of his horse and to the floor below.

Caspian sheathed his sword and rounded his horse over to where Susan was backed up against the moss and leaf covered log. The Queen of Old looked up at Caspian almost incredulously as he offered her out a hand.

"Are you sure you don't need that horn?" He asked with a smile as he brought his horse to a halt. Susan smiled back at him before pulling herself up from the ground and taking a hold of his hand before he pulled her up onto the back of the saddle before kicking his horse on again, the sun illuminating their faces as they rode away, Susan still with her bow held in her left hand.

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><p>Their blades clashed together again as the sun shone down on them. Peter and Miraz switched sides as they equalled each other in their match. Their swords clashed again before Peter moved back to the other side and whacked Miraz causing him to move across to the other side of that battle field.<p>

After a few seconds the two clashed again once again switching sides. A cheer came from the Narnians, but Peter still tried to block it out focusing on the battle in front of him and on his brother, Edmund.

Glenstorm and Trumpkin exchanged a small smile as they knew that Peter had done well so far.

Miraz swung his sword again and Peter ducked, however as he rose back up the Telmarine King whacked his shield into Peter's head, forcing his head to fall back and his helmet to fall to the ground with a clang.

He looked back up at Miraz who then swung his sword again. Peter moved his head and managed to avoid having his neck cut by the blade. The High King knelt down onto one knee and swung his sword, the blade connecting with Miraz's right leg, cutting straight through the fabric.

The King bent over and placed a hand over the injury before raising back up and looking over at Lord Glozelle expecting him to shoot Peter any moment now after he gave him the signal.

Lord Gregoire was watching him and past him Glenstorm, the Bulgy bear and Trumpkin while Lord Sopespian watched his cousin before turning to look at his King and Lord Glozelle watched his King the whole time (not that he counted the man as his King anymore).

Both of the Kings took a step back before charging at each other. Miraz threw his sword down towards Peter, but connected with the ground instead as Peter rolled over him to his side.

The High King of Narnia was on the other side of the concrete arena when he pulled himself onto his knees and then back onto his feet. Miraz swung at him again, but only to connect with the silver shield. Peter then brought his own sword over the top of his shield and swung at Miraz only to connect to his shield.

Miraz threw another swing at Peter and connected to his shield before tripping the King up causing him to land on his back. Peter didn't get a chance to move before Miraz brought his foot down onto the inside of his shield and twisted it slightly causing Peter to yell out in pain as his shoulder was moved at a strange and unusual angle.

The Bulgy bear put his paw into his mouth and bit it while Trumpkin and Glenstorm shared a look between the two of them.

Peter recovered as quickly as he could and swung his sword up hitting once again against Miraz's shield. The King swung his sword and only got thin air as Peter rolled over away from him, having to roll over his shield to do so.

Peter blocked each of Miraz's attempts at hitting him with a sword and he rolled away each time until he couldn't roll away any further, so he rolled and rolled back slightly, so that when Miraz moved forward to strike at him he could hit the King's shield before rolling away completely causing the King to fall over onto his back.

Both of them then rose back onto their feet and stared at the other, but Peter moved his gaze at one point to look over at the trees when he heard a horse whinnie.

Caspian rode back towards them and from his position Peter could see his sister's noticeable quiver of her bow and arrows from behind Caspian's head, however he couldn't see any sign of Lucy with them. The pair came to a halt a little way from where Glenstorm and Trumpkin were stood, halting the horse on the grass and dismounting.

"Does His Highness need a respite?" Miraz asked as they stood each other down, staring at one another intently to watch for any move that the other would make.

"Five minutes?" Peter asked.

"Three." Miraz told him emphasising that point by saying it through near gritted teeth and mentioning with his sword and shield. Lord Glozelle placed down the cross bow and then went about moving Miraz's chair.

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><p>Edmund continued to make his way round the back of Aslan's How from around the wooden track. He could hear shouts from both Narnian and Telmarine alike as he did so and he could only hope that Peter was winning or matching Miraz.<p>

Suddenly the Narnians cheers turned into worried shouts and Edmund moved over to a set of trees. He found his footing easily and climbed up a bit until he could see slightly over the top of the track. He watched Susan and Caspian arrive on a horse to join Peter who seemed injured.

Aware that he was losing his footing Edmund climbed back down and as he started walking again said, "Keep smiling Peter."

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><p>The archers were looking between each other motioning to what looked like was wrong with Peter and most of his land army seemed to be doing the same. Trumpkin moved forward and grabbed Peter's helmet before walking back to where Susan and Caspian now stood with his High King.<p>

Caspian took his gloves off and looped them over his belt as he and Susan came to a stop by Glenstorm, the Gentle Queen looking on worriedly at her brother as he walked towards them.

"Lucy?" Peter questioned as he approached them

"She got through…" Susan told him before looking at Caspian and back to Peter, "With a little help."

"Thanks." Peter said to Caspian although he did wish that the Prince had told him where he was heading off to.

"Well, you were busy." Caspian replied.

"I assume you won't let things get that close again!" Miraz told Lord Glozelle as he threw his helmet down onto the floor while the Lord just looked down with both Lord Gregoire and Lord Sopespian looking at him also.

"You better get up there," Peter told Susan who then looked around to see the group of archers that she had been training looking lost without some form of authority up there with them, "Just in case. I don't expect the Telmarines will keep their word." Peter finished while Caspian watched his Uncle carefully.

Susan took a step forward and gave her brother a light hug, but still she got a gasp of pain from him.

"Sorry." She said

"It's all right." Peter replied.

"Be careful." Susan told him.

"What about that lot?" Trumpkin asked before hinting over towards their army of worried Narnians.

"Smile, Peter," Susan said, "Trumpkin and I will go and join the archers." She and Lucy's Dear Little Friend turned and ran off towards the How. While they did so Peter raised his sword and put on a very big smile even though he was gritting his teeth together slightly, but from a distance his army couldn't see that and cheered for him.

Caspian

"How does he look to you?" Miraz asked.

"Young." Lord Sopespian replied, although he knew that Miraz wasn't looking for that answer.

"But His Majesty's doing extremely well…" Lord Glozelle started backing up the High King of Narnia, "For his age." He then tightly pulled on the bandage to make sure that it stayed and Miraz groaned in pain as he did so.

"Ah," Peter looked over to his right as Caspian removed the shield from his arm, "I think it's dislocated." He told the Prince and Glenstorm before Caspian started to check that out for him.

"I wonder what happens back home if we die here." Peter said loud enough for Caspian and Glenstorm to here, but neither of them commented on it finding it wiser not to. Caspian looked at Peter for a moment before thinking something up.

"Then let's try not to test it. Remember you've still got Edmund to find." Peter looked up at him after that and started speaking again.

"You know, Edmund's always been there and I never really…" Peter cried out in pain as Caspian relocated his shoulder.

"You'll have to save that for later. For Edmund not for me." Caspian patted Peter on the back before walking over to grab his weapons.

Miraz stood up and so did Peter. He was handed his sword by Caspian followed by his shield. Susan looked at Trumpkin and he looked at her before they both looked back at Peter and the battlefield below them. Caspian then offered Peter his helmet, however to his surprise the High King denied it and didn't take it.

Glenstorm stepped forward a bit and then said, "Good luck My Liege." Peter nodded his head in thank you to the Centaur before walking out back onto the battlefield and his whole army behind him cheered loudly as he did so.

Lord Glozelle also offered Miraz his helmet, but the King refused to take it as he too walked back onto the battlefield.

Peter rushed at Miraz and knocked the King's shield before he could even take a single swing at him. Miraz then swung back at the High King only to have it blocked by his sword and then have his second attempt blocked by Peter's shield.

Miraz brought his sword down onto Peter's before pushing his shield into Peter's knocking the King back a few steps. The Telmarine King took another swing at him and then slammed his shield into Peter's face, knocking the High King's head back.

Peter swung at Miraz who blocked it before Peter swung again, however Miraz ducked and the blade went straight over his head. When the King rose back up and the pair clashed swords again. Miraz spun round and whacked his shield into Peter's, the sun reflecting off both of their silver blades.

The impact knocked Peter into the edge of one of the stone pillars and it was only thanks to his shield that he didn't hit his arm or his face, however he did then land onto the floor on his right side with his shield rolling onto the floor a little way away from him.

Miraz stumbled back a few steps before he headed back towards Peter and attempted to bring his blade down onto the High King's neck or chest. Peter rose as quickly as he could and managed to block the sword with his own, even if it then did knock him back down a bit.

The Telmarine went to strike again, but Peter had moved quicker and swung his legs round, kicking Miraz's out from under him to knock him down onto the floor. Peter's blade hit against Miraz's shield as the King rolled over slightly before pulling himself up and onto his feet as Peter rose from his knees ready for the next blow to come even though he knew that he was at a disadvantage without his shield.

* * *

><p>Edmund had run along the track after seeing part of Peter and Miraz's battle. He couldn't hear the shouts anymore on this lower part of the track as he attempted to avoid the Telmarine spy's that Glozelle had given the locations of to him.<p>

However he was unlucky when he heard a horse moving towards him before he heard the shout of a soldier. He grabbed his shield, but made no bother with his sword instead reaching for the knife that Lord Glozelle had given to him.

His aim had always been good and although at this point in time he would prefer to have a bow and arrow or a cross bow he managed and the knife hit just off of its original target, getting the soldiers leg, but still it forced him off of his horse and he fell to the ground.

Edmund drew his sword and moved forward as the soldier got up and grabbed his own sword from the ground. Their two blades clanged together before the soldier knocked Edmund's shield out of his way and it tumbled down the bank beside them.

The King of Old ducked and swung his sword across the man's ankles and as he went to fall over decapitated him with a single slash across the neck. He continued to run afterwards, but then heard another shout as a horse appeared behind him, but with a very loud roar (that Edmund didn't think was human) the threat of the Telmarine soldier was gone.

Edmund looked around and saw the outline of what he believed to be a lion. The lion looked at him and nodded and in that moment Edmund recognised it could be Aslan. He blinked a few times before the lion turned and ran off in the offer direction. Edmund turned and continued to run in the direction that he needed to go in.

Although he never lost faith that that very lion could have been Aslan himself just because he ran off. After all Aslan was known for coming and going whenever he liked.

* * *

><p>Peter and Miraz's blades met and Peter managed to force Miraz's back before swinging it across his head managing to successfully land a hit this time getting him in the nose with the shock causing Miraz to drop his sword.<p>

Peter moved forward for another attack and Miraz defended with his shield to the best of his ability a few times before Peter swung again, but this time lent forward just a bit too much and Miraz moved his shield out of the way and grabbed the top of the sword ad Peter attempted to get a direct hit.

The sword was pulled from his grip and Miraz whacked Peter across the head before pushing his shield into the Kings shoulder before trying to do a similar thing again, but this time Peter grabbed the shield and held it away from his own body and tried to push it against Miraz.

He eventually succeed in twisting himself under the shield and twisting Miraz's arm behind his back. However Miraz used his free arm to whack Peter in the face before pushing him over, so that he banged into one of the slabs of rock.

Miraz then bent over to pick up his sword before attempting once again to bring it down over Peter's head, however Peter managed to move to his left in time to avoid the hit. Miraz swung the sword again and Peter used the armour on his arms to block the hits before punching Miraz's leg exactly where he had cut it earlier causing the King to cry out in pain and grab a hold of his injured leg.

"Respite!" He called out over the cheers of the Narnian army as he fell to his knees and Peter moved over to make sure that he was alright, "Respite."

"Show no mercy!" The Narnians cried and Caspian was looking over his shoulder at them and then back at Peter unsure as to what the High King would choose to do.

Miraz was looking at Lord Glozelle who made no move to pick up the cross bow and Lord Sopespian allowed the small hints of a smile to appear on his face.

Silence fell upon everyone as Peter made his decision, finally choosing to allow the respite that Miraz had ordered and started to walk back towards Caspian and Glenstorm. Miraz glared at Lord Glozelle who still didn't make any movement at all before reaching to his right and grabbing a hold of his sword.

Edmund was making his way around the back of the How when he heard the Narnians shouts and so looked back over to see if Peter was winning since that was what his army seemed to be hinting at. From watching his brothers actions, Edmund wished that he could be over there to tell him this.

"Now's not the time for chivalry, Peter!" He knew that his brother couldn't hear him, but it was automatic for him to say it anyway. And even from where he was he could spot Miraz's actions quicker than Peter could and shouted out to him again.

"Look out!" Edmund breathed a sigh of relief when Peter brought Miraz down to his knees.

Peter heard a nagging shout in the back of his mind warning him to look out and so he turned around to check that Miraz was heading back over to his group as well only to find the King almost directly behind him with sword raised and poised to strike.

Caspian made move to reach for his sword, Glenstorm made move to raise his and the Bulgy bear made move to intercept with his paws.

Peter ducked and then grabbed the sword as Miraz attempted to bring it down on him a second time before stabbing him just under the shoulder with his own blade forcing him to his knees. Peter held the sword raised and considered whether or not to take the Kings life. On the one hand he wanted to and on the other he didn't, because Miraz could be his only chance of finding Edmund, but on the third hand (not of course that he had a third) it wasn't really his life to take.

"What's the matter, boy?" Miraz asked, "Too cowardly to take a life?"

Eventually the High King lowered the sword and spoke, "It's not mine to take." Peter turned around and held out the hilt of the Telmarine sword to Caspian who remained stood where he was for a moment before walking forward and taking a hold of the sword. Once he had taken it Peter bent down and picked up his own sword before walking over to join Glenstorm.

Susan watched carefully as Caspian took a few steps forward towards his Uncle. Peter and Glenstorm also watched carefully as Caspian raised the sword to have it pointed down at Miraz.

"Perhaps I was wrong," Miraz said, "Maybe you do have the makings of a Telmarine King after all."

Caspian listened to this and Miraz lowered his head before the Prince yelled out and ran the sword into the ground in front of him. The Telmarines King jumped before looking up into the enraged face of Caspian the Tenth.

"Not one like you," Caspian all but growled before standing up straight again. He was unwilling to be a King like Miraz who would Murder people and possibly kidnap people as well, although Caspian was surprised that Miraz hadn't used Edmund against them so far if he did have him captures, "Keep your life. But I am giving the Narnians back their kingdom."

Caspian looked over at the three Telmarine Lords and watched as Lord Sopespian stared back him. He returned his gaze to Miraz before walking back over towards Peter and Glenstorm. As he reached them the Centaur raised his sword and the Narnians cheered, knowing that to be the symbol of their victory.

Lord Glozelle watched the Narnians happily, glad that Caspian had chosen to give them back what was rightfully theirs. Lord Sopespian whacked him on the arm and Glozelle could guess why. Sopespian was the first to walk forward to Miraz who still remained knelt down in front of his own blade.

"My King." He said as he helped the injured King up and onto his feet.

The archers cheered and Susan smiled as Caspian headed back to meet her older brother, glad that he had in turn done the right thing.

Peter patted Caspian on the back before turning to Glenstorm.

"I'm going to ask Miraz about Edmund." Glenstorm nodded and Caspian stood in between the two of them for a moment before replying.

"I'll come with you."

But none of them could have predicted what happened next.

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><p>Alright I will update this again at the end of the weekend and I will also update the Just tomorrow, I intended to on Thursday, but I hadn't finished the chapter, so I might try and update that story twice this weekend. Also please remember to vote on my poll. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

Alright here is chapter twelve, I hope you like it and I'm sorry for the lack of Lucy in this chapter.

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><p>"I'll deal with you when this is over." Miraz told Lord Sopespian as the Lord helped him to his feet, the Telmarine King not noticing the arrow that the Lord held. It was Susan's, the one from earlier when the Pevensie's had first returned to Narnia.<p>

"It Is over." Lord Sopespian told him with a smile before he stabbed the arrow into the Kings back, just under the fold of his armour. Miraz's pupils went wide and he started to gasp for breath for less than a minute before he fell flat down onto his face on the concrete, unmoving and dead.

Caspian and Peter had turned around just after Lord Sopespian had stabbed the King and both of them watched as the man died.

"Treachery!" Lord Sopespian shouted while pointing up at the Narnian archers, namely Susan, "They shot him!" He pulled Miraz sword out of the ground and Lord Glozelle and Lord Gregoire galloped off on their horses back towards the Telmarine army.

"They murdered our King!" The Lord shouted again as he ran back over to where his horse was still stood.

"Be ready!" Peter shouted up to Susan while pointing up at them. The archers moved at Peter's orders before Caspian shouted out to Peter.

"Peter!" The High King turned around to see a Telmarine soldier approaching him from behind. Peter struck him down quickly, his anger helping him even more to do so for Edmund.

"Go!" Peter shouted and the Bulgy bear ran off towards the rest of the Narnian army and Caspian remounted his horse and Peter ran forward to stand at the very edge of the concrete area.

Edmund moved around from the back of the How and up onto the grass a little way in front of what had been Peter and Miraz's battleground a few moments ago.

He watched as Lord Glozelle returned over towards the Telmarine army before he galloped over towards the trees. Edmund took a deep breath and waited until the Telmarine cavalry had charged in before making their move.

For looking at the battleground he could guess Peter's battle plan just by looking at the scene that had been laid out in front of him and he just had to wait for the Telmarines to fall in it. For the Narnians had set up a trap waiting to happen.

"To arms, Telmar!" Lord Gregoire shouted as he approached the army and raised his sword, "To arms!" The second time he was also joined by the shouts of the Telmarine soldiers. Some of the soldiers waved flags and the soldiers in charge of the catapults.

"Loose!" Some other soldiers shouted and the catapults were launched heading over towards the Narnians army. The ground around them was hit a few times raising massive clouds of dust around some of the army members.

Down below the how some of the Narnians looked up at the noise as they waited for their signal, watching as clouds of dust fell down from above them.

Lord Sopespian soon joined Lord Gregoire as the Telmarine army got ready to move. Looking around he couldn't see Lord Glozelle anywhere and so had to go about ordering the cavalry forward himself.

"Cavalry," He raised his sword before pointing it forward, "Attack!" The Telmarine cavalry charged and while they did so the catapults continued to fire and beat down around them as the hoof beats approached them.

"Archers to the ready!" Susan shouted as she pulled an arrow out of her quiver and the rest of the archers quickly followed to do the same. Caspian held his horse to halt in the same place while he waited for Peter's signal.

Eventually the High King turned around and Caspian kicked his horse on into a canter with Glenstorm following him down into the How. The Prince grabbed the torch on his way down and turned his horse around, so that his back was facing them.

"Narnians!" Caspian said to the waiting members of the Narnian army, "Charge!" And then following Caspian, the Narnian army made their way out of the main section and down through the tunnels.

The Telmarine cavalry's horse hooves beat down on the grass covered ground as they galloped towards the waiting Narnians.

Below them Caspian led Centaurs; Satyr's; leopards; Minotaur's; Giants (like Giant Wimbleweather) and other creatures through the set of well carved out tunnels. One of the Centaurs blew on a horn as they reached a certain point and the noise travelled up towards Peter and the other creatures.

Once Peter heard the horn he left it a second before he started counting, "One, two…"

"Three, four…" Caspian counted out loud as he galloped through the tunnels.

"Five, six…" Peter continued to count as the cavalry approached and the catapults continued to be fired around them.

"Take your aim!" Susan told her archers as she raised her bow to point up towards the sky, the rest of them all following to do the same.

"Stay with them!" Trumpkin shouted as the catapults landed around them, knocking some of the archers off of their balance.

"Eight, nine…" Peter counted and on what would be ten he then shouted, "Get ready!"

Caspian too had counted up to ten and on what would be for him, the number eleven he shouted, "Now!" The minute that the command had been given the Narnians ran their weapons through the supporting beams. Their mallets, hammers, sword, axes and numerous other weapons providing the strength that was needed to bring down the old pillars and destroy the structure of part of the How.

Dust started to fall around them and the ground above started to crack bringing in natural light on top of that from the torches that were being held by the Narnians who weren't carrying weapons to light the way for the others down what had been a shrouded path.

The Telmarine Cavalry were charging at too fast and speed (and with too big ego's as well) to actually stop themselves as the ground suddenly seemed to dip below them before it well away all together, the grass falling in and the mud and soil that had held together the land also fell in.

For every beam that the Narnians destroyed, the land above dipped and cracked before falling in with everything that was above it falling in as well.

"Stop! Back! Back!" Soldiers shouted desperately as they felt themselves falling or for the few lucky ones who were caught just outside of the grounds range. Many who had seen the row in front of them fall tried to turn around, but they too were forced in from the power of the land crashing in on them and not being able to take their weight without the beams that had supported and held it there for so long.

"Hold it now! Hold it!" The Telmarines shouted as they tried to get back up onto the secure part of the land and as they shouted to the other soldiers who charged, but even they couldn't stop their pace.

"Now!" Susan shouted as she watched them all fall before releasing her red and golden tipped arrow into the air. The other archers followed lead and the array of arrows flew up into the sky, heading towards the sun and the clouds.

A few were taken out by the catapults as they curved around and dipped heading point down to the ground where the Telmarine soldiers struggled and now even those who had managed to stop their horses were getting caught up in a fire of arrows from the Narnian archers.

As soldiers tried to climb up they were hit and pushed back down: most of those that were hit receiving fatal hits to the chest.

Horses reared up and bucked as the arrows flew past them, all of them moving as quickly as they could to avoid being hit. Peter watched as the first part of their plan succeeded.

Edmund used a small old piece of rock to help him as he grabbed a hold of one of the Telmarines horses and used the rock as a sort of mounting block or spring board as he jumped onto the horses back, kicking it into a canter. He held the reins in his right hand and a Telmarine cross bow in his left as he rode into the main centre of the battlefield. The cross bow had been General Glozelle's, but he had given it to Edmund to take in case it could have been any help along the way to him.

"Charge!" Peter shouted as he pointed his sword forward before running forward himself. The Narnians moved forward and the army of creatures rushed forward into battle.

After the order had been given, more Narnians also appeared from inside for he How using the main entrance. Reepicheap was one of them as he rode along the back of a centaur pointing his small sword forward with a battle cry as they advanced.

From under the How, the army had stopped destroying the structure once they had heard the Telmarines falling and Susan shout to order the firering of the archer's arrows. Caspian kept the army moving until they reached the two dwarfs at the end of the part of the tunnel that they were going to.

The two dwarfs used their swords to cut through the structural supports that held up a piece of grass. The grass was brought down on a triangular slope that formed a ramped bridge. Caspian discarded the torch and placed both of his hands onto the reins as his horse charged up the newly placed grass ramp.

The rest of the Narnians followed with battle cries as they reached the sunlit land above them. The minute that Caspian saw the light touch him, he drew his sword and pointed it to the sky before shouting out, "Charge!"

They circled round back towards where the cavalry were failing to turn back. There was another bridge opposite and Narnians charged up from there as well. Between the two sets of Narnians who had started to work under ground to bring down the Telmarines, they managed to block off any escape chances that the cavalry had to return back as they appeared out of nowhere with swords and weapons of numerous numbers and battle cries that would make your throat ache.

Peter lead the army that had started on the top land across the land that still had the structural supports underneath. Amongst them was the Bulgy bear who was now using his paws to a good use of charging to put them soon to an even better use again when they collided with the Telmarines. Peter's charge was also joined by a few grey wolves who would have once followed Maurgrim – leader of the White Witches Secret Police into battle – only to know follow what their ancestor would have fought against.

As some of the soldiers rose to their feet, Peter used his sword to cut them back down as well as his feet as he kicked one soldier in the head to force him back down into the destroyed land. Peter looked up at the rest of his army as they fought against their own proportion of soldiers.

Caspian was riding along, cutting down soldiers left, right and centre as he galloped past. Giant Wimbleweather was proceeding to pick the soldiers up and throw them across the parish, their fall killing them easily enough, especially when they were only being thrown back into the area where they came from.

Edmund brought the chestnut Telmarine horse to canter along the outside of the hole in the land. The reins were looped through his arm and the horse held its head high as he fired arrows from the cross bow at the soldiers that tried to escape from Peter's planned trap. When he had he grabbed a hold of the reins again with his right hand, he held the cross bow solely in his left hand.

The Telmarines looked at the armour of the horse and over looked him a few times before a few of them noticed the armour that he was wearing and remembered who he was. That was when he started to have soldiers chasing after him.

Trufflehunter threw himself into one of the soldiers who then looked at him in shock. Another soldier placed his sword horizontally on the grass and tried to pull himself up. He was pulling himself from the terror of pit of destruction when Reepicheap appeared in front of him, sword already drawn and pointed directly at him.

"You're a mouse" The Telmarine soldier announced, shocked.

"You people have no imagination." Reepicheap told the soldier before he struck him down with his little blade.

Peter cut down another soldier before he looked back up over at the Telmarine army and watched as the soldiers prepared to take their next orders from their superiors. The Telmarine Lords rode forward first before the foot soldiers followed with their shields and spears held as they marched.

The Catapults continued to fire as they did so, the actual catapults hitting around the area just in front of where Susan and her archers were and just behind where Peter and the Narnians were fighting the Telmarines.

Edmund had galloped the horse over to where Lord Glozelle was now waiting for him around the very back of the How. Once their Edmund jumped off of the horse and watched the approaching Telmarine forces with despair.

"How many of them?" He asked the Telmarine General.

"Hundreds of men are in our army and remember all of the others that pledged their troops to Miraz. There must be a thousand men out there at least Edmund, I don't think the Narnians stand much of a chance."

"You haven't seen what Narnians can do," Edmund replied, "The trees they can help: if they come back out that is."

"Their still, they always are."

"Aslan." Edmund mumbled.

"Who?"

"Aslan. I saw him earlier in the woods."

"Do you think he'll help?"

"Yes, he always does," Edmund answered, "Always."

Caspian had also noticed the approaching soldiers and watched them for a moment before raising his sword up towards the sky.

Peter looked up toward the sky and watched as six griffins flew off from the How, each one with a dwarf archer.

Lord Sopespian sat on his horse in the middle of the pandemonium and watched of the Telmarines pushed forward their new weapon.

Edmund looked over as he saw the massive cross bow that the Telmarines had brought forward. He had been afraid that they would use that to counter anything that Peter tried to do from the sky.

"Loose! Loose!" The soldiers shouted out as they fired the five massive arrows from the massive cross bow and Edmund could only watch as the arrow took out the griffins and their dwarf archers with simplicity.

Peter watched this too and turned around to face Susan who stared back at him before he spoke, "Lucy?" Although Susan couldn't hear him she had learned to lip read and she shook her head after a moment to tell Peter that they had to try and hold out a little longer.

The High King turned his head around to look back over at the Telmarines advancing forces, of by which they were easily outnumbered and tried to remember some of the things that General Oreius had always told him about numbers and battles and plans that worked when it looked like you were outnumbered, but all of that seemed to go from his head when he thought about everything else that he was trying to do at the same time as well as making his quick decision on this current situation.

"Back to the How!" Peter ordered, raising his sword and looking at Caspian before turning and moving back in that direction with his army. Caspian looked over at Peter, but as he did he didn't miss noticing a red coloured armour like Peter's over near the far left side of the How before he galloped off to do the same.

Cheers could be held from the Telmarines forces as they watched the Narnians head back to their base, but even that couldn't be counted as enough.

"Cut off their escape!" Lord Sopespian shouted and the catapults were aimed at the entrance to the How accompanied once again by the soldiers shouts of, "Loose!"

"Brace yourselves!" Susan told her archers as the catapults rained down around them, hitting the solid structure of the How and creating big clouds of dust beside and causing the trees to shake in their footholds.

Trumpkin still remained firering arrows while the other archers held on for dear life as best as they could and down below Peter ran back to the How with his army.

"Back to the How!" Some of them shouted, repeating Peter's earlier order as they all moved to do so. Peter saw this before some of the others did and brought himself to a halt at the top of the ramp, most of the army that was behind him doing the same, however a few of them were unlucky enough to be caught in it.

A Satyr, a Faun and a leopard were caught under the rock fall of the stone structure that was above the entrance. Peter looked up to where Susan and her archers were as a tree fell and some of the rocks below where they were stood collapsed as well. Susan was looking at some of her archers when the ground below her disappeared and she slipped off of the edge of it.

Trumpkin, who had previously been firering arrows, chucked his bow down as quickly as he could and grabbed a hold of Susan's hand as she fell – just like many of the other archers had moved to do – and held onto her with all of the strength that he could muster.

Caspian (who had already dismounted from his horse) ran over to join Peter and stood behind him as they looked up and watched as the little dwarf held onto the Gentle Queen of Old. The Prince looked over at Peter who looked back at him before they both turned their attention back to Susan's current dangerous situation.

Even though he was trying his best, the Dwarf eventually let go off her hand and Susan screamed as she fell. Although the wind seemed to suddenly change direction and Susan fell at a diagonal angle onto a moved slab of stone, landing on her hands and knees before she stood back up and looked at Peter and Caspian to reassure them that she was alright.

Peter swallowed and turned around to look back at the Telmarines that approached them now in rows of ten in a circle formation to block them in and the rest of his army. Caspian looked determined next to him to destroy the Telmarine forces that stood in front of him.

"Crush them all." Lord Sopespian spoke out loud to himself as he looked over at the Narnians with a smile.

Susan and Trumpkin had made their way down to join Peter now as well as the rest of the archers. Trumpkin swapped his bow and arrows for his helmet and sword and Caspian drew his small knife into his left hand. Susan stood between Peter and Caspian and stuck with her bow and arrows.

Edmund looked at Lord Glozelle and threw the Telmarine made cross bow down before drawing his sword from his side. The Telmarine Lord stuck with sword and spear and the pair of them looked each other in the face for a moment in complete silence before the Lord spoke.

"You know I think you're crazy charging into that army with just a single sword," Edmund watched the Lord with a blank face, "But I wouldn't want to be fighting against you. I'm with you and he Narnians to the death."

"Thank you." Edmund replied with a smile before both of them looked ahead of them at the Telmarine forces and – after Edmund took in a deep breath of air - charged in.

Peter moved forward and Susan and Caspian followed along behind him with Trumpkin, Windmane and Glenstorm following behind them.

The High King kicked one of the soldiers over and Caspian stuck down another, Susan took out a third with an arrow and Trumpkin a fourth.

Edmund threw his sword into one of the soldiers with a raging force and from that soldier he took the sword and used that to arm both of his hands before spinning around and slicing through too more of the approaching soldiers.

Peter, although injured and exhausted fought his hardest, For Narnia, For Edmund and For Aslan.

And as the battle raged on, Peter could only hope that Lucy would find Aslan and save them all.

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><p>Alright I hope to update again on Saturday, I will try to update The Just tomorrow before I go back to school on Thursday. Please vote on my poll, thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading and good luck to all of you who are going back to school :)<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

Alright here is the next chapter, I will let you know if I won't be able to update at any points prior to it. I hope you enjoy this chapter and on with it we go.

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><p>Destrier galloped through the woods as fast as the horse could possibly go. Lucy could feel the air pushing her hair back as they passed still tree after still tree. Destrier's hoof beats fixed as the only sound that filled the wood and reached her ears.<p>

Then another set of hoof beats joined Destrier's and accompanied by the shouts of a person or more like the shouts of a soldier - a Telmarine soldier.

Lucy spared a look over her shoulder to see that she was right and the soldier followed her with both a cross bow and a sword. The Valiant Queen turned her attention to look forward again and kicked Destrier on a little bit more, even though she was already going as fast as she pretty much could.

The soldier's horse whinnied and for some reason Lucy felt inclined to look to her left. So she did and she was sure that she could see a golden lion running through the wood almost parallel to her. Her eyes followed it as it moved ahead of her until it was just in front of her which was when it stopped moving and growled slightly as the soldier caught up to Lucy.

Before roaring.

Destrier reared up in front of the lion and Lucy screamed as the horse did so before she fell off of the back as Destrier placed her front feet back down. Lucy landed on her side and then rolled over onto her back to look up at the face of the lion.

The lion bared its teeth and growled under its breath before seizing onto its target and leaping onto the soldier, unseating him and pulling him from the back of his horse: grabbing him within his large, padded paws and mauling over him.

After a moment the soldier's cries died down and eventually died out completely as Aslan rose back up to stand on all fours and look over in the direction where Lucy had fallen.

Carefully the young Queen of Old picked herself up off of the floor and looked over at where the lion was stood. She blinked once when she had stood herself back up straight and looked over at him silently while he looked in the other direction.

Eventually the great lion turned his head to face her and the growling, strong, battle face from before was replaced by a face that was full of kindness and love.

Lucy smiled before simply saying, "Aslan!" Her young voice breaking through the silence before she ran over to him, giggling slightly. The moment that she reached him she embraced the lion in a hug (as best of one can with such a creature anyway) and he joined in her giggling with laughter as he let his feet slide from underneath him, so that he was instead laying on one side.

He placed a huge paw over Lucy's arm as she buried her head into his thick mane.

"I knew it was you," Lucy told him as she pulled back and sat down crossed legged on the leaf covered floor, "The whole time, I knew it. But the others didn't believe me."

"And why would that stop you from coming to me?" Aslan asked her as the Southern Sun illuminated the woodland ground and emerald green leaves that were around them.

The youngest Pevensie was silent for a while and she blinked a few times before she even said anything back to him in reply, "I'm sorry." She told him before adding; "I was too scared to come alone." This made her think of Edmund who - not by choice – was alone.

"Why wouldn't you show yourself?" She asked him curiously in wonder as to why he hadn't come to help them find Edmund before hand or to help them fight the Telmarines, "Why couldn't you come roaring in and save us like last time?" All the while during her questions the Great lion had allowed his tail to swing up and down as he listened.

"Things never happen the same way twice, dear one." Lucy knew where she had heard Aslan say that before only a little while ago although at the time it seemed like it had all just been one big dream, because that was what she wanted to see here in the land of Narnia, however now that she was sat in front of the great lion it seemed like it might not have all been just a dream and now the young Queen found herself wondering as to whether it was actually real or not.

Lucy looked at him before adverting her gaze to the floor that was too her left, for a moment she seemed to suddenly be finding the collection of leaves very interesting. And then almost as suddenly as she had looked down, she looked back up at the face of her beloved lion.

"If I'd have come earlier, would everyone who died…" Lucy trailed off for a second before picking her trail of speech back up, "Could I have stopped that?"

"We can never know what could have happened, Lucy," Aslan told her, "But what will happen is another matter entirely."

"You mean you'll help?" Lucy asked.

"Of course," He replied, "As will you."

"Oh," Lucy started, "I wish I was braver."

"If you were any braver, you'd be a lioness." Aslan told her and managed to succeed in putting a smile onto the young girls face, "Now, I think your friends have slept long enough, don't you?"

Lucy watched as the great lion stood up and roared loudly the sun illuminating his golden coat even further and as she raised her gaze to the leafs of the trees, she saw the first signs of life and movement as the green leaves twitched in awakening.

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><p>The battlefield in front of the How was flooded with Telmarines with each Narnian having to fight around ten to twenty soldiers each at a single time. The grass - even though it still shone in the sunlight – had lost its real shine when you looked at the array of bodies that covered it both Narnian and Telmarine.<p>

Trumpkin was fighting off soldier by soldier with Caspian not that far away from him. He took a blow that knocked him down while Caspian was fighting off another soldier. When the Prince rose again a second later he saw this and threw his knife in his hand to get his grip before throwing the small weapon into the back of the soldier that was raising a sword to strike the Dwarf.

Said Dwarf rolled over to move away from where the soldier's body was going to fall and then looked up at Caspian who had already moved onto continue fighting.

Peter was battling with one sword alone and was struggling slightly to manage his own group of soldiers just as it seemed some of the others were. The High King had always fought with sword and shield, unlike that of his brother who (during the time when they had been Kings and Queens of Narnia during the Golden Age) had perfected the art of fighting without a shield and using two swords instead of one.

It was at times like now that Peter too wished that he had perfected such an art himself.

Susan fired arrow after arrow, while also being slightly creative and using her bow as a separate weapon entirely at some points finding it extra helpful since she had soldiers coming at her from each direction. However each soldier that she hit was another arrow used and the High Queen was finding some problem that she would eventually run out of arrows which would then put her in a very dangerous position on this battlefield.

Being in the middle of her brother and other Narnians to her right she wasn't getting swamped by too many of the soldiers, however she still had some of them running at her from directly in front of her.

On the other hand her bow and arrows gave her the advantage of being able to shoot down soldiers from a further distance away than you could with a sword and her aim was still as brilliant as it had been when she had been a Queen of Narnia in the Golden Age (something that she was very glad of) as it meant that she wasn't taking her own side out.

Although she did eventually have the Bulgy Bear come over to help her by watching her back.

General Glozelle was also busy fighting against the army that he had originally trained. He had an advantage on this field though, over the other Narnians as the Telmarine soldiers ignored him and went for the Narnians, so as they moved toward Edmund (and a little way away from them his two siblings) he would just stab them in the back.

In both ways.

Edmund was fighting with two swords to knock out soldier after soldier while more marched towards him. He slipped down onto one knee and cut one of them on the leg before catching them in the chest with the second sword. Another soldier ran at him and Edmund swung himself up, hitting one sword against the Telmarine shield before bringing up the other sword, however it only managed to catch the soldiers sword.

Edmund kicked the next soldier that came towards him, his foot connecting with the shield. As he looked on at the approaching soldiers he found himself losing his focus slightly on the soldiers that were actually directly in front of him.

"Come on!" Reepicheap shouted as the Telmarines advanced before he run in under their feet, hoping to take a few of them out from underneath.

Edmund breathed heavily for a second as he came to a short halt.

He turned back around to see Lord Gregoire stab a Minotaur before he, with a shout turned around and ran towards Caspian.

The Lord, however stopped short a few steps away, the point of the spear held out towards the Prince's neck and chest as Caspian swallowed and looked up as he waited for the Lord to kill him.

Said Telmarine Lord breathed in deeply and looked at Caspian before raising the spear and bringing it back down onto the Prince who shut his eyes and prepared to meet his end.

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><p>Travel by horse, Griffin or even by Centaur did nothing to compare to travel with that of a lion. At least that was Lucy's view on it (even though she had never travelled on the back of a Centaur she knew that Susan had and she had never flown with a Griffin either, but her other siblings that all done that as well, but only she and Susan had ever travelled with Aslan or on his back at least.)<p>

Aslan ran through the woods and Lucy could now feel the wind and the air pushing her hair back as he did so. She smiled as the Dryads started to emerge from the trees and the roar that Aslan had used to awaken them seemed to pass through every tree as they all finally woke up after years of slumber since the Telmarines invaded.

"Where are we going?" Lucy asked as the lion as they seemed to pass out of the part of the woods that she knew she had just come from.

"A place that you know most well, dear one."

"I don't remember this way though." The Dryads were moving beside them now and Lucy watched as the wood slowly faded away and they ended up coming out by the newly built and recently finished Telmarine bridge. It was here that Aslan and the Dryads all came to a stop.

The trees seemed to whisper words to the great lion who in returned gave them thanks.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked, "I should help Peter and Susan. Oh, Aslan we have to find Edmund."

"And we will dear one," Aslan told her, "But I believe that he has already found you."

"How can you know that?"

"I watch over all of Narnia, dear one and over you and your siblings and I will continue to do so for a long time forward."

"So what do we do now?" The Valiant Queen of Old asked Aslan curiously.

"We wait dear one. They will come and when they do we will be ready for them." Lucy blinked before letting a smile grace her face and then together both she and Aslan waited for the time to come when they headed in this direction and while they waited Aslan talked Lucy through just how she could help.

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><p>The body of Lord Gregoire fell down onto Caspian, the spear landing (luckily) just to the side of Caspian. When the Prince looked up he could see only a flash of red which soon moved back to be covered by that of Telmarine armour, but Caspian could recognise easily enough that it was not Peter.<p>

That meant that it could only be Edmund which also meant that when Caspian had seen that same armour earlier that it was Edmund then as well.

The Telmarine Prince looked over to where Peter was still battling Telmarines rapidly from all directions. Caspian looked between the Telmarine soldiers that were approaching him and Peter and eventually had to settle for covering his own back.

Edmund was fenced back in by Telmarine soldiers. He hadn't had the time to properly introduce himself to who he assumed to be Prince Caspian, but he had managed to save his life which was one thing even if it wasn't another. And after all it was the better of the two things.

Lord Glozelle was just a little way away from him, closer to where Susan was and Edmund could only hope that she didn't shoot him thinking that he was the Telmarine soldier that he looked like.

The Just King of Old noticed Lord Sopespian glaring at him and he looked at the look of victory that graced his face even though he had yet to win anything at all in this battle so far as no conclusion had been decided.

Suddenly Edmund felt as something hit him across the back of his ribs and shoulders. As he turned around to source it, but only to find himself lose his footing at the same time that a blade knocked into the sword that Aslan had given him and Edmund let go of it to move his wrist out of the way when a sword cut diagonally along from the top of his thigh up to the bottom of his stomach and he screamed.

Forced to his knees he managed to reach out and grab his sword while using the Telmarine one to block a blow from a soldier. He stabbed the second with his other sword as he brought it up, however he couldn't manage to get the other one, but the soldier yelled and pitched forward before leaning back and falling backwards, dead.

When Edmund looked up he saw the Telmarine Lord stood there, extending out a hand to him which Edmund took and used to pull himself back up onto his feet although his breathing was now heavier than it had been before.

"You should leave," The Lord told him," You can't fight in that condition." Edmund swung his blade forward and managed to catch the blade of the soldier who had come up behind Lord Glozelle before using the other one to strike him straight through the stomach.

"I've fought in worse conditions like this." He replied while stepping forward, so that his back was to the Lord as the soldiers ran at them both now fully realising that their own General was their enemy as well as King Edmund, who they had kept prisoner.

"Yeah like what?" The Telmarine General asked as the pair of them started fighting the soldiers. The only reason that he was talking to the King was to try and help him focus on not losing his consciousness.

"Four years after I became King, I had to rescue Peter from the Calormene, there were a few wars and fourteen years after I became King, Susan and I were almost held prisoner."

"And those injuries were worse than that one?"

"I thought they were," Edmund replied, but I'm not really too sure."

Caspian was trying to fight two soldiers at once and if he was honest he wasn't actually having too much luck at doing so. It only took a few strikes and he almost lost the grip on his sword and was knocked to his knees.

However before he could even reach his knees, he was tripped up by a soldier that was lying on the floor. A moment later he found himself falling over the edge of the massive dip that they had created.

Susan (with only a few arrows left at this point) saw Caspian fall over the edge watched in shock as he disappeared from her sight.

Glenstorm charged through the soldiers and finally reached his destination of some of the approaching ones. They seemed to have, however seen a little sense and had placed their shields above them to try and save them for a little longer.

The Centaur along with a few fauns jumped in on them and knocked a lot of them over, their shields doing nothing so to protect them from any damage.

Peter watched this before spinning around and knocking down another soldier and then moving to strike another, his eyes frantically searching the field for his brother, the few cuts on his face clear to see as they bleed red.

Caspian had let go of his sword when he had hit the ground and now he looked behind him to see some other Narnians down here with the soldiers that they had trapped earlier. He looked around at the Telmarine soldiers and watched as one of the soldiers that were stood in front of him suddenly had something wrap around his waist before he was hoisted off of the ground and whacked into the edge of the land above.

The minute that his head connected he fell unconscious and he was eventually dropped back onto the floor. Caspian watched in shock as this happened, his curiosity spiked as to how that could have even be possible to have happened.

General Glozelle had stopped fighting alone little while ago, well the moment that he had seen Edmund start struggling that was. One moment there was a mass of soldiers in front of them and the next some of them were being thrown backwards and out of the way, with some of them landing on the completely opposite side of the battlefield from where they were originally fighting.

Immediately Edmund's face brighten up and all he said was a single word.

"Aslan."

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><p>Alright sorry that this was updated later than I planned and that it's shorted than I had originally wanted it to be, but I will try and make the next one longer and I'm also going to try and write a few of the chapters in advance. Please vote on my poll, thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry that this took so long, I meant to uploaded it the other day when I updated The Just, but I just forgot to post upload it onto my document manager thing, so yeah I'm really sorry about the ten day wait that you have had on this chapter.

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><p>Caspian looked in shock as he puzzled his mind over what had just happened to save his life from what had looked like the root of a tree. The Narnians soldier seemed to be cheering and the Prince stood himself up as the Telmarines tried to run away. What confused Caspian was that none of the soldiers actually gave chase.<p>

But then he did just have to assume that they knew what they were doing.

The High King appeared and extended a hand to him to help him get back up the bank. Both of them still had a hold on their swords an as Caspian stood back up onto the solid ground he could see what the other Narnians had already seen.

Trumpkin made his way over to him and handed him back his knife which Caspian took with a small thank you as the pair of them followed Peter towards the new Narnian weapon.

Moving about were numerous trees that had once been stood completely still around them were now actually moving around and helping them from the looks of it.

Lord Sopespian looked over at the trees in complete shock as they moved toward him and the remainder of his army. Even though they had held the winning odds at the beginning he was now wondering whether they still did. The catapults continued to fire, although they weren't really going to do that much good any more.

Caspian and Trumpkin walked beside Peter looking around and Lord Glozelle and Edmund made their way towards where the trees were all headed towards the Telmarines.

Susan ran across the battlefield startling some of the Narnians who hadn't been expecting that while they were all looking on in shock. The oldest Pevensie Sister had spotted something and she recognised it even more the closer that she got to it.

"Edmund!" She called out as she came closer to him. Edmund turned around to face her, not quite knowing whether he would see her or not just because he had heard her voice. When he did see her he ran over to meet her and she embraced him into a hug.

"We thought we had lost you." She told him when they let go of their embrace.

"Yeah, I don't stay lost though do I? I didn't last time and I haven't now." The pair smiled before walking forward towards the line of trees with Lord Glozelle joining them again.

"Lucy." Peter said as he looked at the amazing change in Narnia. He looked over to Caspian who then adverted his glaze to the trees as well just in time to see a Telmarine catapult hit one of them. The tree howled in pain before falling down to the floor. The tree to its right watched before angrily pulling its roots up from the ground and then slamming them back into it.

The Narnian soldiers darted out of the way as the root moved from under the ground. It came back up when it came to the end of the ground where the massive pit was and then filtered back in after it had crossed the distance before continuing its underground advance until it reached the Telmarine back lines where it's roots flew back up out of the ground and wrapped around the catapult before pulling it down and destroying it.

The Narnians cheered again as they watched and Peter brought around a new command.

"For Aslan!" He shouted as he raised his sword and pointed the tip to the sky before the Narnians choired his shout. The moment that they had he dived forward into a run with Caspian and Trumpkin moving to follow him in his dashing pace.

Susan and Edmund ran along behind with Lord Glozelle and some of the tiger, leopards and wolves with the Centaurs, Minotaur's, Satyrs and faun's following along behind them. The Telmarines ran away as fast as they could, but any that fell so unlucky as to be caught by the charging Narnians were struck down instantly and without hesitation.

The trees continued their advance to and charged alongside the Narnians as the Telmarines made their hasty retreat.

"We can defeat them if we draw them to the river." One of the Lords told Sopespian as he galloped over to him.

"We must regroup," Lord Sopespian told him before raising his sword and shouting an order of, "To Beruna!"

"To the bridge!" The soldiers shouted as there Lords galloped off in front and they followed along behind on foot.

One of the soldiers raised a horn to his lips and blew to tell the rest of the soldiers the order of regroup.

The river ran along at a still fast past as the small waves lapped the sand at its edges and the trees that made up the wood now blew in the wind. As the beats of horses hooves approached, Lucy Pevensie raised her head and stopped the conversation that she had been having with her Dryad friends who soon disappeared out of sight as she too hid.

The Telmarines charged towards their newly finished bridge with the Narnian army close behind them and getting closer each and every second. Lord Sopespian galloped to the front and then stopped as he rode his horse onto the beginning of the bridge with the rest of his army stopping behind him as he watched the small approaching figure.

The Narnians charged from the woods and towards the stationary Telmarine army before stopping themselves just behind them all and looking on across the bridge as some of the Telmarine soldiers turned to face them, swords drawn, however none of them would need them any longer.

The small figure that Lord Sopespian had seen made its way on to the beginning of the bridge from the other side before stopping and it soon became clear to the Pevensie siblings who it was and even to the Narnians. Some of the Telmarines also recognised her, but under her full name of Queen Lucy the Valiant (not that they believed a little girl like her to be that.)

Lucy drew her small knife from where it rested at her side and held it out as an obvious warning for the Telmarines to walk no further towards her. Lord Sopespian watched her in complete shock for a moment before looking over at the Narnian army and then back at Lucy only now to see that while his back had been turned that she had been joined in company, not by a fearless army however, but by something worse.

A giant lion walked over and stopped beside her to her left. The two looked at each other with a smile before looking back at the Telmarine army to which Aslan growled under his breath, but still loud enough for the Telmarines to hear him.

"Charge!" Lord Sopespian shouted as he raised his sword and the soldier began to wade through the water or gallop across the bridge as they charged towards the young girl and the lion that stood beside her. After all neither of them looked that dangerous or scary and they had nothing to lose.

When they were halfway across the bridge, Aslan growled and Lucy looked over at him just before he roared loudly, so loud that the still water around them rippled in a giant semi-circle shape for a moment before the lion finished roaring and looked upon them calmly.

The Telmarines – both shocked, scared and intimidated – stopped their advance and looked at the lion to see what would happen next, not actually expecting what was going to happen.

Suddenly the water became wilder and stronger and the Telmarine soldiers who had been wading through it began to struggle. Lord Sopespian looked down at the water before noticing the massive wave that was heading towards them from the other end of the river.

"What is happening?" One or more of the soldiers shouted as some tried to get out of the water with the first cry being joined by more desperate shouting by the soldiers.

"The river!"

"Retreat!"

"Back! Back!"

Susan and Edmund looked across at the river from where they were stood just behind some of the Centaurs and fauns. Lord Glozelle watched the river before turning his attention to his cousin.

Peter and Caspian stood at the front of the army with Trumpkin, neither of them wondering at this moment in time as to where Susan was as they watched the massive wave, the Telmarines, Lucy and of course the Great Lion, Aslan himself.

As the water came closer, Lord Sopespian turned around and galloped back towards the Narnian army in an attempt to get off of the bridge. The water lapped over itself as it approached before rising up and becoming the form of a massive figure made out of the water from the river itself.

It's long water made arms showered the Telmarines as it towered above them and made its way towards Lord Sopespian, the water below it increasing rapidly in speed and strength. As it reached the bridge, the desperate soldiers leapt off into the water and tried to attempt swimming away from everything, however the water pushed against them and shifted them towards the shores.

Lord Sopespian raised his sword to shield his face as the river spray showered down on him. He made no move to get off of his horse and jump like the soldiers had or to even run away (not that he really even knew which way was best to go anymore.)

Aslan slammed a massive paw down onto the bridge and looked up at the river who seemed to understand such a command that Lucy did not.

Using its powerful hands, the river reached over to the bridge and tore it up from the supports and raised it into the air, so that the only thing left on the bridge was level with his face. The only thing that was left on the bridge of course was a very scared and very desperate Telmarine Lord.

As Lord Sopespian starred into the face of the river, he didn't really know what to expect. His horse stood stock still on the spot and the river gave him a menacing glare that was – to sum it up in few words – more menacing than those from Miraz himself.

"Come on." The Lord said eventually after turning to face the water straight on in a feeble attempt to be brave, it was just water after all and there was nothing to fear of the water, except maybe everything?

The bridge was tilted by the river and his was slipping as the wood crumbled out of the supports that no longer held it and slipped down into the remainder of the river below. Lord Sopespian swung his sword with a battle cry and tried to seem like he was being brave.

Lord Glozelle – being his cousin – could see through that and was (especially at this moment in time) glad that he had decided to follow King Edmund for otherwise that could be him up there about to meet his untimely end.

After a moment of starring at the Lord, the river powered it's head into the remainder of the bridge and the Telmarine Lord before folding down and in on itself to push back down into the water, forcing the Lord under him as the river returned back to the water with a massive splash that sprayed over the nearby Telmarine soldiers and a few of the front rowed Narnians as well as Aslan and Lucy before lapping of down the way and eventually settling back down.

"Assemble on that bank!"

"You will not be harmed!" Narnians shouted as the Telmarines gathered, having now being forced into surrender with the loss of the only other Lord who had chosen to lead them.

"Surrender your weapons!" Numerous soldiers handed their weapons to the Narnian soldiers who had lined up on the edge of the bank, Trumpkin of who was one of them who was taking the weapons off of the soldiers before they assembled on the bank that they were being guided towards where even more Narnians stood waiting.

"Take off the armour!"

Peter and Caspian waded their way across the river and stood in front of Aslan and Lucy who had no slipped her knife away and Aslan watched as the pair approached them. The High King and Prince looked at Aslan and were about to get on their knees and bow when Susan's voice cut through the air and reached them, making all of them (including Lucy and Aslan raise their heads.)

The water lapped against the ends of her red dress, but Susan didn't care as she waded through it. Next to her, her younger brother followed on her footsteps of wading through it and behind them Lord Glozelle followed allowing the King and High Queen to go first.

Peter smiled and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Edmund and Caspian watched the younger brother of Peter carefully, but with a smile none the less. Lucy looked to Aslan who nodded to her before she smiled widely and turned back to face her older brother and sister with a loud shout of, "Edmund!"

When the three of them finally made it onto the land they walked over to Peter, Caspian, Lucy and Aslan.

Lucy restrained from rushing over and hugging her brother, but only because of the sudden change in her oldest brother and Caspian's behaviour when they noticed the Lord that now stood next to Edmund. Caspian was the first to react.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be joining them over there?" Caspian asked as he gestured over towards where the soldiers were being told to gather.

"If that is what you think is best, but Prince Caspian at least give me a chance to explain-"

"Explain what?" Peter asked, "There's nothing to explain! It was the Telmarines that were keeping a hold of my brother wasn't it! I knew it!"

"Peter-" Susan tried to interrupt. For even though she had not originally noticed the Lord, she did know that when they had crossed the water, Edmund had spoken to the man for a moment, so whatever had happened, Susan Pevensie didn't think him to be the bad guy and of course she always had her name to live up to.

She wasn't called Queen Susan the Gentle for nothing after all

"If you have laid a hand on him!"

"I haven't." The Lord insisted and Edmund shifted his looks between Peter, Caspian and the Lord wondering whether to intervene while at the same time feeling completely like passing out as his hand became red.

"You tried to kill me!" Caspian added now and Lucy looked desperately to Aslan in a silent plea to ask him to stop them fighting, however the lion did nothing at all and Lucy looked back on the situation in complete and utter shock.

"I was merely following orders-"

"Yeah, but you used to serve my father and take his orders not those of Miraz."

"I can't believe that-"

"Peter, please listen to him!" Susan insisted, "He might be able to-"

"If he is injured I'm going to kill you per-"

"You'll be lucky to get any form of me-"

"Please stop it all of you, can't we just-" Even Lucy tried, however she too was failing in her attempts.

Peter drew his sword as did Caspian and both stepped forward to strike the Lord. Edmund dived forward and placed a hand in front of his brother's sword, the blade cutting his hand slightly, but his hand was already red enough.

"Will you please just stop arguing all of you!" He told them, "This isn't a very Just way of sorting things."

"Edmund I don't know how-"

"How can you just say-" Peter and Caspian both started a different sentence at the same time, however Edmund stopped them both from speaking once again.

"If it wasn't for Lord Glozelle, Peter I would be dead right now and I owe him my life."

"You can't trust him, Ed."

"Yes I can, Peter I he swore his allegiance to me. He isn't about to draw his sword and start-" And before Edmund had even finished his sentence he was falling.

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><p>Okay I hope you enjoyed this chapter I hope to update on Saturday and I also hope to update The Just on Thursday, please vote on my poll (if you haven't already,) thanks also for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

I know that there has been such a big gap in between this and my last update. Firstly I got the part of Susan in my school's production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which took up a lot of my time with rehearsals (1 lunchtime/3 after school,) added to the fact that our school made up do 'duties' like cleaning, running after school and lunch time clubs etc. none of which were optional as they would look good on our CV's apparently. At the same time I had my exams to deal with and then had to look after my cousin while her Mum was in hospital.

So I am so, so sorry. I know I have kept you waiting a long time, but I promise never to do it again as long as I can help it. Thank you all for sticking with me and continuing to favourite, alert, review and most importantly read!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who has voted on my poll so far. I will take it down in a week or so and begin writing the stories for those pairings.

P.P.S. If you did vote on my poll (and remember doing so as well as what you voted for,) could you please PM me, so I can dedicate the story to the write person.

Final note now. Because I have kept you all waiting for so long and am deciding to write 5-10 stories for you with the plot/pairing (anything within reason: including ratings,) that you would like to try and make up for the gap, so please PM me if you are interested and I will start writing those as well.

Thank you and here is chapter 15! (At last :))

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><p>"He isn't about to draw his sword and start-" Edmund hadn't even been able to finish his sentence before he started falling towards the floor.<p>

"Edmund!" Peter shouted as he darted forward to try and catch his brother. Caspian moved forward as well, but it was Glozelle - who was placed directly behind Edmund - who caught the young king as he fell backwards.

High King Peter draw his sword and Caspian followed suit. Susan just glared and Lucy watched from a far, trying to keep herself out of the oncoming, inevitable fight that she could see starting up again soon.

"Let him go!" Peter shouted as he pointed his sword towards the Telmarine, but still far enough away to avoid it hitting Edmund: who had paled considerably.

"If you care for your brothers health then maybe you should help me." Glozelle replied as he lifted his hand from the wound over Edmund's stomach that he had been trying to apply pressure to. The moment Peter and Caspian saw it, they put their swords away. Susan turned to her sister.

"Lucy, your cordial, quickly!" She shouted to her and the younger dived forward to help even though she hadn't been quite able to see properly from where she had been stood.

Peter dropped down beside his brother and the Telmarine Lord as Caspian watched from where he stood behind them as the youngest Queen of Old rushed over with her cordial to her injured brothers side and placed a drop of it in his mouth, before moving to stand with her older sister.

It seemed like minutes had passed when, only seconds later, Edmund coughed and opened his eyes, looking up at the blue eyes and ruffled blond hair of his older brother. To his left stood Caspian and his two sisters to the right with Lord Glozelle behind him, sitting him up against him to stop him from falling on the floor.

Peter reached forward and lightly grabbed his brothers soldier, but still forcefully enough to pull him forward into a strong hug and breathed a sigh of relief at knowing that his brother was safe and well again. After a moment of peace, Peter remembered the Telmarine Lord behind them and moved Edmund forward, standing up at the same time and pulling his younger brother to his feet as well.

"Stay there!" Peter ordered as he reached for his sword, but Edmund's pale hand stopped him. Caspian also reached for his, however didn't draw it when he saw that the High King hadn't drawn his. Lord Glozelle hadn't moved at all and Edmund cast a small look at the Lord before looking up at Peter.

"He's a friend, Peter, he helped to keep me alive and well all of this time. He doesn't deserve this."

"Edmund, he's a Telmarine!" Peter almost hissed as he said the small sentence to try and get it into his brothers head.

"But they aren't all bad though are they." The younger bit back, looking his slightly taller, blond brother in the eye.

"He still has to join the rest of them Edmund, because he is one of them."cac

"Okay, so Caspian has to as well then," At hearing his name, the Prince took his eyes off of the Lord and looked at King Edmind, "He's a Telmarine."

"Caspian's on our side." Susan intercepted between the pairs conversation.

"And Lord Glozelle is as well," Edmund put back, "Hasn't he already showed to you that he cares? He's not like the rest of them and neither is Caspian."

Peter wanted to say something back, but he could think of nothing at all that defeated Edmund's argument. So giving up he moved his hand away from his sword and held his hand out towards the Telmarine Lord.

"High King Peter," He paused and was about to add the rest of his title as well, but he always knew how Edmund thought it unneeded and so left it off, changing what he 'was going to say, "Thank you for looking out for my brother." Lord Glozelle looked to Edmund, who nodded, before taking Peter's hand and standing up onto his feet.

"Your welcome Your Majesty, it is truly an honour to meet you for your brother holds you in the highest of regard."

"Really?" Peter questioned.

"Yes, he has spoken very much and greatly of you in the short space of time in which I have known him."

Everyone gathered around each other and began to talk, their minds all drifting away from the battle just fought - and now won - as they enjoyed the moment of calm that had befallen them.

A cry of outrage returned them all to their senses immediately. Trumpkin was bellowing at them and no one could react quick enough to his words before the arrow was speeding towards them at an unstoppable pace, intent on hitting it's designated target as with force it finally found its new resting place and dug in deep with malice and intent just like a child uses to grip their Mother's hand when they feel an immense sense of fear.

Everything went silent with the same sudden quickness as it had when the arrow had finally connected with its 'Chosen One.' No one made a move for what felt like a stream of continuous hours that was actually a stream of seconds that headed towards making up a lonely minute.

The river itself seemed to slow and cease its sound of rolling waves and white anger that frothed up upon the crystal blue pool. The Dryads and the trees ceased any movement and retreated back, desperate to forget the moment that they knew would always hold in Beruna's History and that of Narnia's leader's minds and all present with a gripping horror that threatened to cut off the circulation of oxygen and blood in your body: allowing your heart to run cold.

It seemed strange that the battle had been deemed as 'over' when now it seemed that it had only just begun.

It was hard to say who reacted first, as all had reacted in their own unique way, but no reaction would be strong enough to truly forget the horrific moment: even for a second, not even just one.

Susan had gasped, but not looked away, however Lucy had done just that: screaming before the arrow had even hit. Nor Caspian or Peter had made a sound, although the Telmarine Prince hadn't been able to stop an involuntary flinch. Peter though, had ended up on the floor in the quick flurry of movement and as the entire situation made itself clear to him, the High King realised why he was where he was.

Edmund had fallen to his knees beside the Telmarine Lord and placed a hand on his shoulder as he looked at him. He had been hoping all this time that the arrow had only pierced his armour, though the aim had been true and the hand steady - perfectly so, Edmund concluded - allowing the arrow to become deep rooted in the block that had placed itself in front of its original target as a shield wall and barrier.

"Why?" Edmund asked, but it only came out as some form of whisper, a breathed word with all the emotion of a flood and determination of a killer, for him to get an answer.

"Because I found a King worth dying for," Glozelle replied as he looked at Edmund with the most sincere eyes the young King had seen in a lifetime, "Or I should say Kings and Queens."

"You don't even know them though," Edmund started, "Why would you die for someone you didn't know?"

"Why would you die for someone you did?" The Lord fired back quickly and Edmund tried to formulate a reply, but could find none that was worth giving in the last few moments of the man's life. After a moment he released a breath he didn't know he had been holding and looked away slightly.

"I'm sorry t-"

"Why?" Glozelle cut the young King off suddenly with his own question.

"Because this wouldn't of happened if I hadn't forced you to change sides." Edmund replied.

"You didn't," Glozelle begun, "I chose to and I'm so glad that I did." Edmund looked back at the Lord now, as tears began to form in his eyes, but remaining silent as he listened to the man finish.

"These few days in which I have known you, have been the best I have ever lived. You changed my view on Narnia and showed me that the world Miraz had told everyone to fight wasn't what he made it out to be. You taught me that there was more to live for than the joy of making Narnia another Telmarine conquest. It was never my dream, but it was always theirs," Edmund knew that 'theirs' was referring to Miraz and Lord Sopespian, "As for dying for someone you don't know - maybe you do know them - even if not as well as you would think. You can tell a lot about a person, Edmund, and from the way you have spoken about your family: they are worth dying for."

Time seemed to have dragged on, but it really had barely moved a few minutes forward. As the Telmarine Lords eyelid began to slide shut, Edmund tried to jolt the man awake and keep him that way, however he was failing. Lucy had long since looked away and curled herself into Susan; almost forming another body part to her older sister by the way she had enveloped herself.

Peter and Caspian remained where there were in shock, having managed to hear the entire of Edmund and Glozelle's conversion. Peter had managed to sit himself up before he had picked up on the conversation and had made no more moves after that and Caspian had only managed to look down as the conversation had dragged on and brought them to this final, ending moment of a man's life.

Glozelle had pushed High King Peter out of the way of an arrow fired by Lord Sopespian that had been directly aimed at said King's heart. He had seen it first and had reacted too quickly for anyone to stop him. But then if he hadn't, Peter would be dead and Edmund - although curious - had no intention of finding out what happened in their world if you died here.

Lucy's cordial wouldn't have been able to heal such a wound, that - with the strength of a thousand Aslan's - was not going to miss or waver from hitting a target, even if not the originally designated one.

Armour clad footsteps made their way towards them and heads were quickly raised. Susan (now on complete guard after witnessing one close death and not wanting to see other,) had already drawn her bow and placed an arrow ready which she fired as soon as the Lord had noticed the weapon, but made no move to stop his advance.

The Lord had grabbed his arm and fallen to his knees as the red and gold tipped arrow connected with his armour. Caspian had moved over quickly and pointed a sword at him to avoid him from going anywhere. Lord Sopespian did at least finally have what he wanted though: an audience.

"Just end it Caspian," Peter called to the Prince (now King,) "He deserves it." The High King looked over at his younger brother from his position on the ground.

"No," Caspian replied as he turned to Peter, "Like you did with Miraz, it's not my life to take." The Prince reached his swords hilt towards the High Kings younger brother, but he had made no move from the other Lords body. Peter stood up and crossed the short distance to his brother as he lightly pulled him up from the ground and walked with him to join Caspian. As they reached him, Edmund looked up and slowly reached out to take the hilt that was being offered to him.

Peter and Caspian took a few steps back as Edmund faced Lord Sopespian directly, however still near enough to intervene if so needed. As the Lord looked up, it was clear he held some form of intent hatred and was going to show that.

"Go on then, do it, kill me!" He said, raising his voice through each pause and at each one Edmund would move forward to strike just a little bit more. However after the shout of the final two words he lowered the sword slightly and looked at the man directly.

"Like you have so many others? Your own cousin included!"

"You need to have more backbone, King Edmund. Though I could always remove what you do have for you." The emphasis had been placed just where the Lord had wanted and Edmund (unwilling to kill the man,) ended up hitting him across the face before he even realised it.

Lucy, once again, cradled herself into Susan, looking at Aslan from around her sister as he just nodded at her before she hurried her face into Susan's dress and felt her older sister's arms wrap around her.

"You don't deserve to live, but death would be far too good for you. You just- I can't... How could you-" Edmund hadn't managed to finish any of those sentences by the time the sword clunked onto the gravel like floor beside the river. Peter rushed forward and grabbed his brother and Caspian picked up his sword and just held it as he waited for some form of instruction.

Peter motioned to Caspian with his hand for the Prince to hand him the sword and that was exactly what he did as Peter carefully swapped the sword for Edmund. Caspian had grasped the order very well from the small motion and had placed an arm around Edmund's shoulder as he led the King away and back over to his sisters.

Peter just looked at the Lord in front of him with a desperate rising urge to run him through before he could make any further comment, but instead he just pointed his sword at the man's throat and motioned to where all of the other Telmarines were gathering by order.

"Get over there," He paused as the Lord looked up at him, presumably processing and questioning the order in his mind, "Edmund's right. Death is too good for you: even with all that you've done."

The Telmarine Lord stared at the High King for a moment, but eventually rose when Trumpkin walked up behind him and pushed his dagger slightly into his back. Peter could only glare as the Lord was led away. Caspian's eyes followed the Lord the entire way as Peter walked back over and once again handed the Prince his sword. Caspian took it and removed his arms from around Edmund's shoulders allowing Peter to grab a hold of his younger brother as they all began to walk away from Beruna.

Edmund said nothing as they left, just clung to Peter for the walk. Susan and Lucy walked in front with Aslan and Caspian stood on the other side of Edmund, ever so often sending a worried glance at Peter when Edmund still said nothing: no matter what they said to him.

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><p>By the time they reached the castle, Edmund had brought himself out of his reverie of silence and sadness and seemed to have picked himself up. He hadn't spoken to any of them yet, but as they made they way passed people, he did smile. That smile immediately left - as well as Edmund himself - the moment he got chance. As the five of them rode into what had been - during the Kings and Queens of Old time here so far - Miraz's castle, people cheered in happiness at the sight of seeing their new king as well as the Narnians who had helped him to get to that position, none of the people caring about the creatures walking through the main courtyard as the night began to draw on and into the celebrations.<p>

The night seemed to draw in quickly and the celebrations that long since moved on. Lucy had cheered up and was now enjoying herself talking to her Dear Little Friend and Trumpkin. Susan had been spending much time talking to Caspian, but had eventually spilt apart from him to spend some time with her younger sister, who was calling her over by demand to play some kind of game.

Peter slowly made his way over to Caspian and stood beside the new King, offering his congratulations before further delving into conversation, "You succeeded in bringing peace to Narnia. Telmarines and Narnians as a whole." Peter explained as he looked at the mixed hall of creatures and humans.

"Yes, well I could never have done it without any of you." Caspian replied as he looked at the High King of Old.

"Maybe," Peter mussed, "Caspian, could I ask you a favour?" The new King just looked at Peter questioningly, but nodded and listened as the High King began to speak his enquiry to him.

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><p>Edmund stood on the balcony. The same balcony that Miraz had stood out on the night of the Narnians raid on the castle in order to watch them all be massacred. Just standing on the balcony brought back several memories for Edmund of the time he had spent in this castle. It wasn't that cold, but he shivered.<p>

"If you're cold you could always come back inside," A voice spoke from behind him and Edmund whipped his head around quickly, not knowing who he had been expecting, but it definitely hadn't been Caspian, "Peter's worried about you."

Edmund just shrugged as he turned back around to look over the balcony once again. Caspian sighed, seeing that he had gotten absolutely nowhere. Taking a step forward he stood beside Edmund and leaned his arms onto the stone just like the Just King had done himself.

"I used to stand here and look out at the stars you know," His comment sparked nothing in Edmund, but he decided to keep going, "That's when the Professor started taking me to watch the stars at night every so often. Miraz never found out, it was just between myself and the professor."

Edmund still remained silent, but he had tilted his head upwards during the short beginning to the story to look at the stars and had kept it there since. Caspian looked up to before continuing, hoping that even the small motion meant that he was getting somewhere.

"He used to come and wake me up when everyone else was asleep and I could never wake up. Not because I didn't want to see the stars, but because I actually couldn't find a way to wake myself up. I used to say to him _'five more minutes_.'" Caspian finished, placing a different tone on his last few words. A moment later he considered giving up and moved backwards, allowing his hand to drag over the stone as he went to turn away and go back inside.

Edmund laughed.

It was sudden, short and Caspian thought for a moment that he was going crazy, but then Edmund added more to it that confirmed to Caspian that he had indeed heard the other correctly.

"Peter's like that with school," The new Telmarine King turned himself back around and returned to his previous position as he looked over at the black haired Pevensie brother, "I can never wake him up and he's always asking for five more minutes and then five minutes later, he'll say the same thing again."

"I can't imagine him like that." Caspian replied.

"He isn't the same in Narnia. He uses every moment to his advantage, doesn't waste a second: afraid it will all go too quickly. To be honest I think he likes being a King."

"Who wouldn't? I'm quite liking it." Caspian replied and Edmund couldn't help, but chuckle and Caspian found himself laughing slightly too. When both of them finally stopped, Caspian brought up his original point of coming out here again.

"Peter's worried about you."

"Is he?" Edmund asked as he looked down at the courtyard again. Caspian allowed his eyes to follow and was slightly confused as to what Edmund was looking at. Only seconds later, Edmund had dropped to the floor and sat with his back leaning against the stone of the balcony, so that he had no view of the courtyard.

Caspian knelt down beside the King and waited, assuming that something would be said in due time. He had to wait for just over a minute, but he soon got his answer.

"Miraz slaughtered the Narnians from that raid."

"I know Edmund," Caspian replied, his tone going slightly softer, "I saw it."

"No, you didn't," Edmund bit back as he looked over in Caspian's direction, "You didn't see the aftermath, with them all looking up into your eyes – Narnia's Just King – all of them waiting for me to do something to help them and I could do nothing. You didn't see him crowned King, or see your brother almost killed or-" Edmund cut himself off as the level of hysterics that he was getting to, almost caused him to choke on his own words.

Unsure of what to do, the newly crowned Telmarine King did nothing, but sit there and allow Edmund the moment of silence and someone to talk to: even if no more words were said between them.

It had taken a while, but Caspian had eventually asked Edmund if he wanted to go back inside and was surprised when the Just King accepted.

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><p>Peter had moved to stand himself at the edge of the celebrations in wait for Caspian's return. He had wanted to talk to Edmund himself, however had no idea where his younger brother had run off to. On top of that, he thought Edmund should have a chance to speak to Caspian on a one to one level – some kind of proper greeting: kind of.<p>

When he eventually saw Caspian return to the hall, he was overjoyed to see that he had Edmund with him and rushed over to them. Caspian had nudged Edmund on the shoulder and pointed his older brother out to him. The Just King just mouthed him a thank you before rushing forward to his brother and gripping onto with the might of the entire Narnian army.

Peter was slightly shocked by the amount of force, but wasn't willing to swap this moment for the world as he closed his eyes and just held onto his brother: glad that he was back where he belonged.

Lucy and Susan were busy talking to Reepicheap when Caspian joined them and pointed in their brothers direction. Looking up, both of the Queens of Old soon noticed what Caspian was meaning and shared a short glance with each other before getting up and crossing the hall.

"Edmund!" Lucy shouted as she ran over to her black haired brother and embraced both of them as she joined the pair. Susan had taken a slightly more calm approach, but even she chucked her arms around her two brothers in the family embrace.

Caspian just remained stood with Reepicheap, who by now had decided to sit on the Kings shoulder for a better view.

"I do love family reunions don't you?" He queried.

"Yes, I'm glad for them. They deserve it-" Caspian started, but was soon cut off by the talkative mouse.

"Do you think I could be your royal adviser, Sire?"

"Well, yes, I suppose you could be, bu-"

"Very well, if you insist, Sire for I have many ideas on what we could do to improve Narnia and a start would be for people to stop commenting on me being a mouse, because yes I am a mouse, but I am a fighting mouse and…"

For Caspian, the evening had continued in that way, while the Pevensie's had hosted their (albeit small,) Narnian family reunion. Not evening an hour later, Caspian was sure he had a headache coming on.

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><p>"Ed? Edmund?" Peter asked as he looked over to his brother, who was sleeping soundly, "Are you awake Edmund."<p>

"I wasn't, but I am now, Pete," Edmund answered as he rolled from his side onto his back, "What do you want?"

"Can I come in?" The elder asked from the doorway as Edmund sat up, eventually motioning for Peter to enter the room. The blonde carefully shut the door behind him and made his way over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it as his younger brother looked over at him.

"Now really is there a reason for waking me up or is this another one of your sudden impulses to want a midnight game of chess?" Edmund enquired as he blinked his eyes to keep himself awake.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were alright."

"I can look after myself Peter," Came Edmund's reply eventually. A second later he sighed and added, "But thank you for asking anyway."

Peter smiled and looked over at his brother for a moment and eventually added a small, "Good night."

"Good night, Peter." Edmund replied. Five minutes later when Peter was still sat with him, Edmund gave up and climbed out of bed, accompanying his older brother on the search for a chess set.

It ended up being a long night of loses for The Magnificent King to add to his already long tally list back home.

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><p>Well there it is, chapter 15 done! The next one will probably (this made me sad,) be the last chapter for this story :( I'll actually be sad not to be writing this anymore as I have really enjoyed it, but I don't want to drag it out either and completely ruin it and 15-17 chapters had always been my original end point when I first started writing this and planning it out.<p>

Thanks to everyone who had favourited, alerted, reviewed, read and stuck with me to this point :)

I will try and have the next chapter up by next weekend at the latest and hopefully another chapter of The Just in the next few days as well :) x


	16. Chapter 16

I'm sorry for the long wait on this, but I have been refraining from uploading it, because I really don't want to end this story, but I know I have to, so here is the very last chapter :( Enjoy.

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><p>The next morning, Edmund placed his torch back onto his bed as he and Peter concluded their last chess game of the night and parted ways to get ready for the day. Peter had already told Edmund that he intended to use it to his advantage while they were in Narnia.<p>

Aslan had ordered for all of them to be given new clothes to wear and although they weren't exactly like the old Narnian clothes that they had worn years ago, they were a pretty good exchange and all of them were perfectly happy in those new clothes.

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><p>Susan had just finished sorting her hair when Lucy walked over to her and sat down on the bed. The oldest Pevensie sat down behind her sister and began to plait her hair.<p>

"I'm so glad to be here," Lucy commented as Susan did her hair, "Aren't you?"

"Of course I am Lucy," Susan replied, "I don't get to where dresses like this back home. I feel like some kind of princess."

"Well you are a Queen." Lucy replied as her older sister made the finishing touches to her hair. The dress that Susan had mentioned was actually very beautiful in Lucy's eyes. The white underdress made for a nice contrast to the blue overdress with its gold trim and pattern. The underdress sat just off of Susan's shoulders and had gold bands at the elbows and halfway down the top part of her arm. The sleeves were Bishop Sleeves from the elbow down and the dress was long enough to almost touch the floor.

Lucy's dress was equally as nice and suited the young Queen perfectly, but still Lucy dreamed to be a bit more like Susan. After finishing her sister's hair, Susan stood up and pulled on her shoes, passing Lucy her own as her younger sister gave her a curious look.

"Come on, let's go and find Peter and Edmund." Susan told Lucy, who them beamed a happy smile and began to pull her shoes on.

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><p>Edmund made his way out into the open space of the Telmarine castle and if he had been living there while Miraz was still alive, you would notice the difference in the people's attitudes. People lined the city and were desperate to see their new King and speak with the former Prince.<p>

Peter and Glenstorm stood at the training grounds with Caspian and Peter was trying to talk Caspian through plans and tales that he had used when he was King and Caspian seemed to be thanking the oldest Pevensie. As Edmund approached them, he was noticed by Caspian and quickly hurried forward into the conversation. Edmund – having from the original Golden Age been the most lawful of the kingdoms rulers – had instantly seen the faults in the plans for Caspian's court and raised his issue to the King.

"How does the court normally work here?"

"Well you have the King and his council is made up of thirteen Lords who help to rule over the land and in decision making." Caspian explained.

"So they act as advisors to the King?" Peter questioned, "A sort of support network thing."

"Yes in a way," Caspian answered, "The council of Lords has always been made up of the most trusted noble Lords by the reigning King."

"What about Trufflehunter?" Edmund suggested suddenly, gaining all the attention very quickly, "And Trumpkin, Reepicheep, Glenstorm, the Bulgy Bear and your Professor; Cornelius?

"Ed, none of them are Lords, they wouldn't count in this system."

"But Caspian doesn't trust any of the Lords that served under Miraz. However he does trust all of them and I'm sure they can prove such," The youngest King of Old explained, "Trufflehunter is a badger and it had been their job for years to remember. Glenstorm is a centaur, the sky is theirs to watch just as it is theirs to prophesise. Reepicheep is an honest general of his own mouse fleet and the Bulgy Bear along with his ancestors have been the chosen Marshalls of the Lists for decades on end. As for the Professor, well Caspian knows him well enough already."

"And Trumpkin?" Peter asked, getting closer to his brother before lowering his tone to address solely his younger brother, "No offence to him, but he's just a dwarf Ed."

"Who Lucy trusts dearly and is in favour to all of us for what he has done for our family," Edmund told his brother sincerely, but with his voice equally as quiet, "I bet he could prove it."

"How?" Peter asked.

"Have him fight you or something, Pete. Find a way to give Caspian a chance to see how worthy his is of the people of Telmar's trust."

The High King turned around and drew his sword, holding the hilt out towards the small dwarf, "Fight him." With a look of the head in Edmund's direction, Peter made it clear as to what he meant and Lucy's Dear Little Friend took the motion of the youngest Pevensie brother drawing his own sword as an agreement to fighting him.

Trumpkin took Peter's sword and allowed the blades point to drop to the floor, making the sword look all too heavy for him to wield.

Susan and Lucy were walking the land at that exact moment and noticed the little battle. Both sisters made their way over to their brothers and stood beside Peter and Caspian respectively to watch how the following match would play out between the youngest Pevensie brother and Trumpkin.

The ploy that Trumpkin was playing was soon stopped and the Dwarf quickly whipped the High Kings sword upwards and Edmund, who was caught almost completely unaware by the move and was only just able to duck in time in order to miss the well-aimed swipe of Rhindon.

"Edmund!" Lucy shouted out as her brother reeled back from Trumpkin's hit to his forehead.

"Are you alright?" Trumpkin asked as he looked up at the King before swinging the blade again. Suddenly Edmund dodged and moved round, so that he was behind the dwarf and able to whack him with the side of his sword, causing giggles of laughter from Lucy.

For the other three Pevensie's and Caspian, the small practise battle involved constant movement unless they wanted to risk being hit by either blade.

Trumpkin swung again and Edmund met the strike with his own blade before pulling his sword back and going for his own strike which completely missed Trumpkin with help to the dwarf's height. Trumpkin swung Rhindon at the youngest Kings legs, but Edmund saw the move and jumped upwards, bringing his feet as far off of the ground as he could before landing again, allowing the attack to miss him.

The next strikes met followed by the one after. And that meeting was enough to give Edmund a slight edge. Using all the force he could find, Edmund forced Rhindon upwards and around before dealing out strike after strike, which the DLF tried to match with all his force and muster, but eventually Edmund got the edge and forced the blade out of Trumpkin's hand. Holding his sword steady, Edmund pointed the blade at the little dwarf, who fell backwards and landed on his bottom.

"Beards and bedsteads!" Trumpkin started after he had hit the ground, "He's better than you." The High King looked slightly offended for a moment, but quickly nodded his head with a reply.

"I know he is." Peter replied as he picked his sword back up. Edmund made his way over to Trumpkin and offered the dwarf a hand up, which he took and used to pull himself back up and give Edmund a polite nod of his head. As the group re-joined, Edmund remained staring a something behind them all.

"What is it, Ed?" Peter asked as he looked over his shoulder, causing the rest of their little group to do the same. Aslan stood behind them and it was obvious that he had been watching the group for some while.

"Your Majesty would you care to gather everyone together please?" The lion asked while looking over at Caspian who nodded and bowed slightly. The lion then turned his attention to Narnia's oldest King and Queen of Old, "Peter, Susan, would you walk with me for a while?"

After the exchange of a look the High King and oldest Pevensie sister stepped forward and joined Aslan at his side for the walk that he wished for. Caspian left a moment later to do as Aslan had asked, leaving only Edmund, Lucy and Trumpkin to decide what to do with themselves.

* * *

><p>Caspian made his way out of the door and down the stairs into the main courtyard, looking for Aslan and the Kings and Queens of Old that he had come to know rather well over the past few days.<p>

"Because you have snuck in…" Caspian looked over to see Aslan, walking with Susan and Peter on either side of him, "I'm sorry, but their future in that world shall be good." Caspian watched as they continued walking, completely unaware of his presence and from the small bits of conversation that Caspian was hearing, he was sure that he wasn't meant to know what was being said.

He decided to leave things a little longer. After all, it was Aslan who had asked him to do the task and if Aslan was busy in important conversation with the elder Pevensie siblings, he was sure his small announcement could wait. So he began to turn away from them, planning on heading back towards the way in which he had just come.

"Your Majesty?" Aslan's voice suddenly asked, stopping Caspian in his tracks, as he turned back to face the three.

Susan and Peter were both looking slightly stern and yet curious and Aslan – despite his raging and fierce outlook of a lion – held on kind eyes and a soft featured face. Caspian just looked at them all for a moment: by them though, that really meant Susan.

The eldest Pevensie sister just looked back at the newly crowned King. Caspian eventually blinked and shifted his gaze between all of them, realising he had been staring at the Queen for a bit too long.

"We are ready," He explained and guessed that Aslan had guessed what he meant, especially considering he had asked for the notice, "Everyone has assembled."

Aslan made a low rumbling noise as he looked to Susan, who looked back at him. Caspian shifted his glance to the floor before walking backwards a few steps and then turning around to head back up the stone stairs. Susan's eyes trailed Caspian slightly for a moment, before she, her brother and Aslan started walking again: all with solemn heads.

* * *

><p>As Caspian had announced to Aslan, all – Telmarines and Narnians – had gathered in a section of the castle by a huge winding tree. On a higher raised platform with a small set of stairs, stood the Kings and Queens of Old on the right, with Aslan; Glenstorm; Reepicheep; Cornelius; Trufflehunter; Trumpkin and the Bulgy Bear on the left. With the exception of Aslan, the six Narnian creatures, (although the Professor was only half Narnian,) were now going to be making up parts of Caspian's council, replacing the Lords who had served Miraz.<p>

Caspian stood in the centre to address everyone as a collective, "Narnia belongs to the Narnians, just as it does to man. Any Telmarines who want to stay and live in peace are welcome to. But for any of you who wish," The newly crowned Telmarine King looked over at the lion here with a very small pause, "Aslan will return you to the home of our forefathers."

"It's been generations since we left Telmar." Commented a man stood near the front of the crowd. Near him, Miraz's wife - Lady Prunaprisma – stood, cradling her young, newly born son in her arms.

"We're not referring to Telmar," Aslan announced in his bold voice, easily gaining all's attention, "Your ancestors were seafaring brigands. Pirates run aground on an island. There they found a cave, a rare chasm that brought them here from their world. The same world as our Kings and Queens." Aslan and Caspian glanced over at the four Pevensie's, who at this announcement, were looking between themselves.

"It is to that island I can return you," Aslan continued, "It is a good place for any who wish to make a new start." For a moment, everyone was solely looking between each other, none overly willing to accept the proposal.

"I will go." Lady Prunaprisma announced as she stepped forward, followed by her Father, who held her hand to help her up the stairs. Behind them, Telmarines began to chatter amongst themselves for a moment, while the Narnians just looked on in silence.

"Because you have spoken first, your future in that world shall be good." Aslan told them as they walked forward and up the stone steps. Briefly, Caspian's mind flashed back to the conversation he had heard earlier, remembering Aslan speaking something very similar to the eldest Pevensie's.

With a deep breath, Aslan managed to unwind the tree's wound bark from behind him and create a small gap. Everyone watched the sight in awe, with some very loud shouts of confusion and amazement at the same time. Caspian bowed his head to his Aunt as she walked past him and she returned the action with a small smile before walking through the gap in the tree and suddenly disappearing from sight.

Gasps of shock ran out from everyone, along with comments and shouts, "Where did they go?"

"They've killed them!"

"How do we know he is not leading us to our death?" A man shouted, pointing his hand at the lion. At the accusation, the Kings and Queens all turned around. Peter was tempted to draw his sword, but refrained from doing so, only in fear that he would cause greater panic.

"Sire," A voice suddenly interrupted, "If my example can be of any service, I will take eleven mice through with no delay." Reepicheep announced as everyone turned to look at the small, talking mouse. Susan and Peter though, just glanced at each other before Aslan looked over at them too.

"We'll go." Peter announced to everyone, stepping forward, gaining all of his sibling's attention at the same time.

"We will?" Edmund questioned, looking at his older brother in confusion as to how the blonde could want to leave after desperately trying to find Narnia again for the past year. Peter just looked back at him.

"Come on. Our time's up," On the last line, he looked mainly at Susan, who was completely getting where the eldest of them all was coming from, "After all…" Peter began as he turned to Caspian and began to cross the short distance to the King.

"We're not really needed here anymore." When he reached the Telmarine, he extended his sword out towards him and after a moment, Caspian extended a hand out and grabbed the sword.

"I will look after it until you return." Caspian told them before Susan cut in.

"I'm afraid that's just it," She began solemnly, "We're not coming back." At that, Caspian just looked on at the beautiful Queen in shock at her notice.

"We're not?" Lucy questioned sadly, but at the same time shocked.

"You two are," Peter started as he walked back to stand by Susan, gaining the focus of Lucy and Edmund, "At least, I think he means you two." Looking at Aslan for some form of confirmation, the High King stopped beside his tall, dark haired sister.

"But why?" Lucy asked curiously as she looked over at her beloved lion, "Did they do something wrong?"

"Quite the opposite, dear one," Aslan answered the youngest Queen of Old, "But all things have their time. Your brother and sister have learnt what they can from this world." All eyes shifted to focus on Aslan here as he gave out his reasoning for the decision.

"Now it's time for them to live in their own." Lucy though, even after the explanation, kept her curious expression, still not fully getting it.

"It's all right, Lu." Peter told her as he moved toward his youngest sister, who looked up at him: knowing that it really wasn't all right, "It's not how I thought it would be… but it's all right. One day you'll see, too."

"Come on." Peter told her as he took her hand and led her across the stone towards Caspian's new council. Edmund followed the two and Susan also moved from where she had been stood, however didn't follow her siblings.

Letting go of Lucy's hand, Peter looked up at Glenstorm in silent thank you for all he had done for them, apology for all he had lost and best wishes for his future, which the High King was sure would be a good one.

Edmund stood in front of the smaller council members, Reepicheep and Trufflehunter. Edmund was glad to be speaking to the wise badger and the tactical mouse before he left, giving them both smiles and a small bow.

Lucy smiled at Trumpkin before she felt tears pulling at the sides of her eyes. Slowly she gave him a small curtsy, while he bowed his head, slightly unsure of the true customs having been a rather free and wild dwarf all of his life. A moment later, Lucy couldn't help herself and threw herself forward towards the dwarf, who predicted the move and wrapped his arms around the Queens back, as she wrapped hers around his shoulders.

When the pair pulled apart a moment later, Lucy gave him a last nod of her head and a smile before walking away from her Dear Little Friend, who had composed himself too, allowing the youngest Queen of Old to make her goodbye to them all slightly easier.

Susan made her way over to Caspian and stopped in front of him, "I'm glad I came back." She told him with small hints of a smile.

"I wish we had more time together." Caspian commented as he looked at the Queen.

Susan seemed to think over this for a moment before speaking, although whether she had intended to voice the comment or not was unknown even to her, "It would never have worked, anyway."

After a moment, Caspian brought himself to ask his question and voice his curiosity, "Why not?"

"I am thirteen hundred years older than you." The eldest Pevensie sister reminded him with a smile and Caspian couldn't help, but smile slightly too. The Queen turned away from the King moments later, but stopped only a few steps away and with a small glance back at Caspian, her feet were soon set in motion and walking her back the way she had just come.

Placing a hand behind Caspian's neck, she leaned up towards him slightly and kissed him, not caring who was watching or what they were mumbling. When the two pulled away, they quickly then embraced into a tight hug, which couldn't have simply been pulled apart by anyone who had dared to try. Peter's sword still held in Caspian's hand, rested behind Susan's back.

"I'm sure when I'm older I'll understand." Lucy told Peter as she walked over to stand beside him, finished with her goodbyes to her friends. Peter found her comment slightly amusing and gave a small chuckle and smile to her sister.

"I'm older and I don't think I want to understand." Edmund told Peter as the elder brother looked over at him, as Edmund watched the scene in front of him.

When the Queen of Old and Telmarine King finally let go of each other, they shared a look before Susan walked back over to her siblings with a smile, Caspian's eyes following her every step of the way. Lucy moved slowly to the side and Susan slipped in between Lucy and Peter.

Her older brother placed a hand on her arm quickly in some form of condolence before looking over at Edmund. Lucy just looked up at her sister with a smile before taking a hold of her hand.

The mass crowd in front of them just watched as slowly – led by Edmund, who had the thought to lead – the four Kings and Queens began to turn and walk through the portal in the tree. Lucy was the only one to spare a glance backwards at Aslan and his solemn face before she took a step through the portal.

The sounds of the busy London underground Strand station soon reached her ears and the incoming train sped past them. All of them were once again in school uniform and amongst others in the station: no longer Kings and Queens, but normal children.

Lucy looked behind her and was disheartened to no longer see Narnia behind her. As the train drew to a stop by them, the doors opened and people began to hurry off and onto the train. Susan noticed the boy from Peter and Edmund's school who had been talking to her earlier get onto the train and turn around to address her.

"Aren't you coming, Phyllis?" Susan couldn't help, but smile at the incorrect name he used for her, even after Lucy's obvious correction of it only minutes earlier. The four Pevensie's quickly grabbed their bags and bundled themselves into the train carriage.

"You don't think there's any way we can get back?" Edmund asked while looking into his bag. Susan and Peter just looked at him curiously and in shock, wondering if he had even been listening to Aslan back in Narnia. In answer to their confusion, Edmund delved into explanation.

"I've left my new torch in Narnia." The small sentence caused smiles to reign on Peter, Susan and Lucy's faces with some laughter as the train doors slid shut. Edmund – although he didn't find the situation overly funny couldn't help, but join in after a moment.

As the train began to pull away and pick up speed, the carriage passed by the now empty station platform, ensuring the Pevensie's journey back to school and away from Narnia once again.

But if you had really been listening, then mixed in among the loud clatter of the train leaving, you may have been able to hear a loud roar travelling through the station, echoing off the circular structure of the tunnel.

* * *

><p>There we are, I'm Not Holding Your Hand is officially done! I really liked writing this story and I hope that you all enjoyed reading it. Thank you so much to all whom favourited, alerted, reviewed and of course read this story, everything number on the story stats has meant a lot to me :) As I announce in the new chapter of The Just, I will be uploading a new multi-chapter story in place of this one, hopefully tomorrow, which I hope some of you will read, but until then thank you once again and goodbye for now x<p> 


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